Proofread complete. Had to add some small details in between.


IMPORTANT:

'Thoughts'


Chapter-3

Clack, clack... I seek you...


No matter how far you run, I will always be there…

…just a few steps behind you...

.

.

.

.

.

….or ahead.

"U-Uh.. M-My.. My girlfriend..?"

.

.

.

Olive green eyes peered up at the white dial of the Town Clock Tower as he had come to call it, a few blocks away, keeping his eyes trained on the chestnut brown structure that stood towering over the buildings in an attempt to mask the vexation that gripped at his nerves, although the slight downward turn to his thin chapped lips gave it away.

15 minu-

A metallic clack sounded, interrupting his internal rant, when the large hand of the clock tower moved another minute, a suppressed grunt escaping the pinkette when he tried to hold back a cringe at the sound which was loud enough to cut through the eerily thick silence enveloping the scene and assault his sensitive ears, while he went on staring up at it, the frown still on his face before directing his gaze back forward, breathing out in exasperation through his nose.

16 minutes of hellish silence!

That was the amount of time that passed since the group he called family found him there and were rendered speechless, collectively staring at him with their jaws dropped open shamelessly.

His brows drew down even more, his impatience growing exponentially when his eyes landed on his frienemy who once in his lifetime was fully clothed for more than a minute in that stupid plain white shirt and shitty brown capris as he gaped at him dumbly, the raven-head suddenly breaking out of his stupefied state and snapping his mouth shut the moment he saw the pinkette's brows furrow in irritation at him.

Even though the ice mage had just then realized that they had answered the silent fire mage with nothing but open-mouthed silence, his brain still hadn't had enough time to recover back its sense of reasoning, opening his mouth in an attempt to reply on behalf of the stupefied guildmates behind him, or atleast he thought he was...

Only for his words to come out in a spluttering mess..

"Buh whah-! hwow-!", Gray cut himself off, clearly flustered while his comrades continued to silently gape at Natsu with their jaws slackened still.

Gray cleared his throat, rather roughly in irritation at himself, before trying again.

"Buh whah-! hwow-!"

Loke smacked the backside of his head harshly with a loud whack, the ice mage hurtling forwards at the force but regaining his footing in the last minute before whirling his head around to nod a 'Thanks man" towards the orange-head who replied with a quick "Don't mention it"

Clearing his throat again, Gray turned his attention back towards the simmering pinkette as he took a step forward and opened his mouth to try again.

A loud long belch resonated throughout and all eyes collectively cringed in disgust as everyone turned towards the culprit.

On the far left of the group, a flushed Cana patted her stomach, a satisfied smile on her face before abruptly giving out a squeaky hiccup.

The guild members deadpanned.

Of course, the card mage had chosen the right time to let the alcohol get to her head.

Feeling eyes on her, the brunette threw them a momentary sideways glance, her face twisting into annoyance, obviously taking offense to their rude staring as she hugged her flask tighter in between bikini-clad bosom and clicked her tongue at them.

"Tch, I'm not drunk."

No one dared reply back to the frowning mage, the obvious answer to her declaration silently blaring through their minds as they watched the brunette's face morph into a scowl at their continued silence before turning around to fully face them, her nose flaring in righteous anger.

"I'm not drunk!"

The pinkette and the ice mage started when Cana suddenly wheeled around to face them, her lips pursing as she glared at the two frozen men for a moment before sniffing indignantly.

"Whaaaat? You people have waaaay too much praaawblems!"

And just like that she whirled away from them as if nothing happened, the mouth of the flask back between her lips as she noisily gulped down its contents leaving everyone to silently stare at her back.

The legend has it, to this very day, the members of Fairy Tail still wonder how that flask never ran out.

"Anyways…", Gray started in an attempt to dissipate the awkwardness that had settled in the atmosphere, peeling his eyes away from Cana to look towards the topic at hand, cringing again when the card mage let out another burp.

The ice mage let out a short breath through his nose, "Focusing on the situation at hand..", his blue eyes landed on the pinkette and forced them to stay there as he tried to recollect what he was about to say before Cana had decided to interrupt him.

After a moment's thought, Gray began, "So, let me get this straight."

The raven-haired man took another cautious step forward and threw a quick glance back at his guildmates- who by now had resumed their previous task of shameless gawking – to confirm that he was not the only one who was feeling incredulous about the situation at hand, before directing his gaze back to his pink-haired frienemy, running the question he was about to ask in his mind a hundred million times before he decided to let it slip his lips, all the while trying to keep his face and tone as serious as he could.

Never, not even once, in his lifetime of knowing the fire mage had the ice mage ever thought that he would be standing here, in the middle of a huge crisis which involved panicking people still milling about and asking a question that he knew had sounded so ridiculously funny no matter how many times he had tried pictured himself asking that in his mind right then and there.

'Cause.. Cause! For crying out loud this is Natsu we're talking about! There's no wa-!'

"So basically, you're saying that-"

Gray's head snapped to his left in surprise, almost giving himself a whiplash, to see his partner, Loke who had sometime during the his inner ramblings had stepped next to him, his brows furrowed in genuine curiosity and yet the tension oozing off of his body telling otherwise.

He stared, as his orange-haired partner continued.

"..that she,", Loke merely pointed towards the wounded unconscious blonde in the bewildered pinkette's arms, "is yoouuuuur…. girlfriend.", he ended in more of a statement rather than a question.

The group of gaping mages in between, collectively snapped their heads back and forth between the silent pinkette and the two men, as if watching a game of Fiore Grand Supremo Tennis Tournament, the silence and the tension so thick in the air that if one tried to slice it with a knife, it would merely budge.

Another round of staring from the pinkette's end followed as he eyed both the men, as if he was asked a trick question to choose between fire and food, before answering with a meek hesitant nod.

And wordlessly Loke nodded back, his lips pursing into a thin line before turning on his feet to go back to resume his previous place among the group of guildmates that stood there still gawking at the scene, but not before yanking on the mute ice mage's collar and dragging him along, leaving an addled pinkette behind.

Levy watched the scene play before her from amongst the women standing a little ways from the men, before her hazel eyes drifted back toward Natsu. Her brows furrowed out of confusion and worry as to why the fire mage – who was well-known for his boisterous attitude and never stood in a place for more than 30 seconds - now appeared to be so mute and... pensive.

Her attention shifted down to the injured blonde in his arms, her eyes sweeping slowly over the bruises and cuts that littered all over body. Even from this distance, she could see that not an inch of her skin was spared, even her pale face sporting some cuts and bruises, and not to mention the trail of almost dried blood that ran down from top of her head, her eyes widening on noticing how that portion of her blonde hair is also thickly caked with dark blood.

Her right hand unconsciously tightened, slim fingers curling around a small white device encased within them. Levy tore her gaze away from the woman and looked down, twisting her hand upwards to reveal the contraption concealed within. Hazel eyes glimmered at the two green dots that blared back at her, the bluenette carefully studying the street map displayed on the screen.

"How long..?"

Her eyes snapped up at the hushed voice to find Mirajane staring back at her somberly, the sense of urgency clear from the way her features look strained.

Earlier , before the Fairy Tail members had dispersed off to find the perpetrators who had decided to disturb the carnival, the knights had lend each of the groups a lacrima tracker with which they can fire a beacon so that one of the few dispatched troupe of knights would find them. Levy had fired one on Mira's request a few moments earlier as soon as they had deduced that the blonde's condition was not at all okay.

"About ten blocks..", her voice was barely above a whisper as Levy threw a glance towards the guildsmen who were by now huddled together for God knows what before she turned her attention back to the screen, studying the dots that shimmered on the map - two green dots labelled as K03 and K08 which had appeared a few moments after the beacon signal was broadcasted - signaling that the pair of knights had accepted her call for help and on their way.

The script mage's brows furrowed in sheer concentration as she mentally calculated the distance between the two green spots on the map and the red triangle which showed her location. After a moment's assessment the bluenette let out a short breath through her nose, the crease on her forehead deepening even more and her face paling slightly in perturbation, "It will probably take them atleast an hour.", her eyes flitted up towards Mira, "Maybe even more, depending on how far.. and deep, this..", her eyes darted around them, roaming over the still frightened people swarming around the town square, "situation has spread.."

Mira didn't reply, following the petite woman's gaze, studying the situation that prevailed around them. The commotion had by now decreased, the few people remaining in the area being the vendors who had fled to escape the maelstrom earlier and now returned to find out what was left of their stalls, some which were by now reduced to a pile of ruined merchandise and debris, and the others, devoid of valuable goods and their earnings from the carnival.

The white-haired mage bit the inside of her cheek, an unconscious habit of hers whenever anxiety gripped at her nerves. She inwardly prayed that whatever was going on here had come to an end and that the Magic Council had the perpetrators responsible in magic-cancelling cuffs and on the way to prison.

Beside her, the script mage was nowhere better, lips tightened into thin line, uneasiness settling over her petite frame and gripping her to the very core. Her narrowed eyes were trained on the pinkette and the unconscious blonde now, a million questions blaring in her mind like angry bees swarming around someone who had shattered their hive with a huge whack.

Just, what had happened before they found him that had the blonde in such a state? Did Natsu have something to do with it that has rendered him mum and grim-faced?

Levy inwardly shook her head in an attempt to dissipate the thoughts that seemed to pour into her mind endlessly. She let out an inaudible sigh, hoping she would get her answers as soon as the situation at hand was settled, merely glancing back over to the men before doing a double take, her brows raising incredulously and her jaws slackening.

In fact, all the women of Fairy Tail wore similar expressions as they stared at the scene, while the pinkette looked slightly ticked off, obviously tired.

And the next second found the females deadpanning as they edged away in mild irritation to keep a safe distance from the very real dark-violet bubble which felt toxic to even look at, encasing the so-called men of Fairy Tail who were still huddled together.

The bluenette's face scrunched up in frustration as she let out a low groan, "Not this again.."

Growls, low rumbles, hums mixed with other sounds indescribable, that had the women of Fairy Tail stunned and nonplussed that humans were capable of even producing them, resounded from within the.. 'sphere' - a dull-witted behavior which, they had long ago given up on trying to decipher, and the males had always claimed was their 'brotherhood of whatever' dialect and hence could not be disclosed.

And what that god-awful bubble or orb or whatever-it-was-they-called was, none of the girls knew.. Or rather, didn't want to know. They had better things to do anyways.

Things like trying to find a solution to life-and-death situations like right now - how to keep the bleeding unconscious blonde alive till help arrived. Or like why Natsu of all people chose to remain silent and timid in a situation like this since the pinkette was always the one who never kept his mouth shut, yapping on and on about how he was itching for a fight when matters got frustrating that he did not want to think.

Growl

Grrowlll

"Mmm"

"Mmm-mm!"

"Ugh, this is just getting ridiculous.", Levy groaned miserably, her shoulders drooping along with her head as Mirajane giggled next to her.

For someone who didn't know Fairy Tail personally, they would have thought this to be some top-level-super-secret war council held amongst the powerful, most well-reputed guildsmen of Fiore.

'Pfft! Well-reputed my ass!', Levy snorted silently as she shook her head.

Next to her, Lisanna felt equally incredulous at the males' behavior, some of them nodding with vigor, some with their arms crossed across their puffed out chests, others who were almost obscured from view, being seen waving their arms around as if their gorilla-like body language and the cacophony they were making were not enough to express their 'major problem' at hand.

"Rrrr"

"Bulubululu bulululu bulubu bubbuuulubulu!"

Head still drooping low, Levy muttered, "I can get why they would get defensive against Natsu since his declaration, but.."

"Rrrr-rrrrrrrr-mmmm"

"Mmm"

"..they could have atleast waited till the situation was well under control.", Levy's voice had turned into a whimper, before lifting her head up to look at the men, "Can't they read the situation?", she waved over to the blonde in the fire mage's arms, snapping her head to look at the two white-haired sisters as she continued, now whisper-shouting, "There is an injured woman who if we don't get to a hospital immediately would die of blood loss or god knows-what and-!"

"BBUA!"

All the women jumped at the sudden squawk that resounded from within the 'bubble'.

Mira had a hand loosely over her mouth in surprise before she turned to look at Levy only to sweatdrop on seeing the bluenette breathing sharply through her now flared nose, her chest rising and falling with the action, and her jaws clenched and body stiff and shaking with suppressed fury, as she glared with narrowed eyes at the men who were oblivious to her death stares as they proceeded to thump their chest like wild Vulcans.

Apparently someone must have suggested a solution for the 'thing' - which might have been most seriously unimportant that they had to put the injured blonde's life on the line - that they had to discuss, and the 'solution' must have been brilliant beyond brilliant that all the male population within the 'bubble' had to let loose that hideously frightening crow that they had heard just now that would have had made even Erza wet her panties...maybe not, but a little perhaps.

Mira could see that the script mage was trying hard to not let their behavior get the best of her, closing her eyes to take in a deep breath and letting it out slowly through her parted lips. Opening her eyes, Levy tried to look unaffected, maintaining a poker face as she opened her mouth but failed when her voice came out in a low venomous hiss, her lips twisting into a sneer.

"I swear they are just a bunch of overgrown brats who don't know how to use their brains even if their lives depended on it, with too much energy and time to spare!"

While the bluenette raved on and on about how the men of Fairy Tail were just brainless vessels with overflowing hormones, next to her a very uneasy Lisanna couldn't take it anymore, "Gray-!"

The girl broke off with a start when the dark bubble burst with a literal pop, causing all the women to nearly jump out of their skin.

The said ice mage was looking back at Lisanna with a blank face with Loke next to him, the rest of the men donning similar expressions, causing a shiver to crawl down the women's spines, obviously creeped out by their weird behavior.

The females didn't dare make a peep, watching with bated breaths as all the men silently turned their heads after a moment towards the disheveled pinkette, all the girls' eyes snapping towards Gray at the front of the group when he lowered his head and let out a shaky breath through his now parted lips seemingly appearing to restrain whatever it was he was trying to hold back, before sealing his lips and drawing them into a thin line, his cheeks puffing out not a moment later as if he was gagging before his mouth burst open again with a slight pop to let out nothing but trapped air.

Natsu who had been silently studying his frienemy flinched when the ice mage suddenly snapped his head up to stare at him, his face wavering on the borderlines of an emotion which none of the girls nor the pinkette were able to place.

Moments passed before out of nowhere, Gray let out something remotely akin to a snort, his eyes scrunching up and his mouth pulled into a wide grin, suddenly hunching over, his hands on his knees for support before struggling to look up at Natsu with the grin still etched onto his face.

His voice came out in broken syllables as he wheezed out, "H-H- I'm s-soh so-oh-orry man! I-ah-I'm so-!"

Gray cut off as his legs gave out, dropping to his knees, one hand clutching onto his stomach for dear life giving Lisanna a fright as she reeled back in horror with a shriek, her petite hands flying up to cover her wide-open mouth, "Gra-!"

Loud howls of laughter cut her off as the ice mage now hunched over with the crown of his head kissing the cobblestoned ground, the other men following suit less than a second later, some keeling over like Gray because they had lost all sense, some having enough strength in their legs to remain bending over while some leaned onto each other for support as they laughed and roared in each other's ears to their hearts' content.

The women just stood silent, not bothering to mask the look of bafflement that crossed their faces as they stared at the cackling men, obviously not understanding the unexplained joke.

Tears dripped down his cheeks as Macao guffawed on, slapping Wakaba's shoulder as he tried to crack an even more hilarious joke of his own by spelling out, "Oh!-Oho-oho-h! Our young N-A-T-S-U h-has- h-has a- has a G-I-R-Lf-F—pffftt- RIEND!"

"Y-Yeahaha!", an equally teary-eyed Wakaba roared back in reply, "A-a-nd-! A-and I-I'm w-wear-i-ing p-pi-pi-pink-k t-tho-ongs!"

Dead silence immediately fell over the men.

The whole male population of Fairy Tail stared at Wakaba with dumb-stricken expressions on their faces, the smoke mage's chuckles dying down immediately as a result, his face slowly morphing into one of pure confusion, as a pale-faced Macao dropped his hand from his shoulder and leaned away from him in caution, keeping a safe distance between them.

An equally ashen Gray who was a few paces away to the front, warily eyed the pompadour-haired man as he gingerly croaked out, "D-Du-ude… A-A-Are you…?"

For those who didn't know, Wakaba's eyes were normally pinched.. So pinched and someone who didn't know would think that the man had someone draw two dashes on his face for his eyes and that he was squinting because he couldn't see properly. But now, when he stood there in the center of the circle of comrades, turned to look at Macao, his longtime friend and found him carefully eyeing back and forth between his belt-line and his face, he found himself unconsciously widening his eyes so wide open - that even short-sighted person who stood at the far edge of the town could tell the color of his pupils - jolting in his place, his cigar falling from his slackened mouth at the action as his voice unknowingly went up an octave higher as he spluttered, "Wha.. Are you- are you serious?!", his face twisted into a pleading look.

"Please tell me you're kidding..", he frantically turned his head to look at the ice mage for help, thinking the man might be kidding, only to see him also warily eyeing his hips before meeting his eyes, his features tensed as if ready to run if ever the smoke mage decided to throw an explosive fart bomb at them.

"Wha-?! I'm no- ", Wakaba's mouth dropped open even further, gaping like a fish out water as he looked back and forth between the ice mage and Macao before his face twisted into a scowl, whirling around to shoot a glare at Macao, his hands flying up to grip at his hair as his voice came out louder and higher, "For crying out loud! It was a freeaaking joke, you sick assholes! I was makin' a freakin' joke!"

Macao appeared unimpressed, his hands inside his pockets as he shrugged, his eyes still on the smoke mage's hips, "Could've fooled me."

Wakaba gritted his teeth as he growled lowly, turning his body to fully face Macao who just closed his eyes in response as he turned away from him, hands still pocketed and features now relaxed, pretending to brood for a moment, before peeking one eye open to glance at him sideways, "Remember that time when we were at your house in the backyard one summer, you got hold of your wife's pi-"

"Ho-oh-ho-ho-o!", Wakaba cut him off, stomping a few paces towards him with a hand pointed at Macao threateningly, his voice slightly shaky yet loud, "One more word out of you and I swear I will smoke your sweaty balls out man! Or better yet..", the smoke mage suddenly cooled down as if nothing happened, his face calm as ever, features relaxed, as he turned away from Macao with his arms crossed and eyes closed, a sinister smirk making its way to his lips before he gave the purple-head a sidelong glance.

Macao couldn't help the shiver that involuntarily crawled down his spine, his shoulders going stiff like a pole as he swallowed thickly, waiting with bated breath for the smoke mage to continue, but he seemed to take his sweet time enjoying how his friend was suffering under the thick suspense.

After what seemed like hours to the purple-head but was actually just a few seconds, Wakaba looked away allowing himself a short silent chuckle before continuing, his voice low and taunting, "Remember that party we had at the guild, after that Fantasia parade?"

Wakaba paused again, allowing the weight of the deafening cold silence to settle on the sweating man whose eyes had just then started to widen upon a distant memory, "Do you remember a certain someone finding a pair of boxers in the guild kitchen.. near a certain cheesecake.. Violet with duck prints all. Over..", Wakaba enunciated the last two words slowly, pausing again before continuing, "...along with a pair of leopard print fur handcuffs and a pink chas-!"

He broke off abruptly when Macao slammed his forehead against his, effectively keeping him in place as he sneered darkly, "You wouldn't dare!"

Wakaba grinned back sinisterly, "Try me, dic-!"

"Enough!"

Everyone stiffened up, some of the male guild members unconsciously letting out an 'eep' as their eyes landed on the fuming red-head who glowered at them menacingly.

Erza, who had left the group to scout the area for any knights nearby, trusting her comrades to have Natsu briefed and the wounded woman on the way to hospital by the time she rejoined them, upon her return found herself being greeted by a scene even worse than before.

As soon as her caramel brown eyes laid upon the wounded blonde whose skin had started to turn pale blue, while all the male members of the guild laughed without a care in the world, her face darkened considerably, her hands clenching into fists at their negligence of the direness of the situation.

Her voice was laced with venom as she hissed out, "I leave the area for what, a few minutes, trusting you people to have the situation under control! And this", her left armored hand shot out to point at Natsu.. more specifically the woman in his arms, her glare still on the silent repenting men, "is what I find!"

She gritted her teeth as she continued, her voice raising by the second, quivering slightly as she tried to keep her anger in check, "A woman is unconscious and not to mention, in grave need of medical attention and you imbeciles have the audacity to go and laugh at your comrade instead of trying to help him out! What the hell has gotten into you people, huh?!", her face scrunched up into something akin to pity and remorse for her guild as her voice lowered slightly, "Is this even my guild?"

Confusion momentarily layered the men's faces as they stared at the blonde in their comrade's arms, their faces changing when the seriousness of the situation finally dawned on them, but they didn't reply for fear of unleashing her wrath on themselves... a thing they fear worse than death itself.

Behind Erza, Levy suddenly frowned when her gaze fell down to the unconscious men on the ground behind the silent pinkette before her jaws slackened slightly.

'What the..'

A million thoughts suddenly ran through her mind, her face paling with dread the longer she stared at them.

Were those men laying there before..? How the hell was she seeing them now only?!

'Wait..', her mouth dropped open even more, 'Are those...'

Her blue brows furrowed even more, the bluenette now finding her voice as she mumbled out, "Is that-", she broke off suddenly, letting out a gasp, her dainty hands flying up to cover her mouth which fell wide open in shock, "Natsu! Did you-!", she cut herself off again, unable to form a coherent sentence owing to the weight of the realization that struck her like a freight train, her eyes snapping back and forth between the pinkette and the knocked out men on the ground, pure white horror washing over here as she shrieked, "Did you knock out a Council Knight?!"

That got everyone on high alert, their eyes immediately snapping towards the said unconscious men, the group falling into hushed whispers.

The bluenette's shout seemed to knock the pinkette out of his muddled state, her words although having escaped his ears as he blinked, looking around at everyone in mild curiosity. Realizing their attention seemed to be not on him thankfully, he followed their line of sight, momentarily craning his neck sideways to catch a glimpse of their focus before he did a double take, his heart dropping into his stomach when his eyes landed on the men lying behind him.

His mind was blank as his gaze lingered on them for a moment. He knew how the situation looked like and he had to phrase his answer carefully.

His Adam's apple bobbed up and down as he attempted to swallow but felt his throat and mouth painfully dry as a desert. Clearing his throat to overcome the discomfort, he turned his head back to regard his family who were still patiently waiting for his reply, seemingly holding in their breaths so as to not let even a peep from him go unheard.

Curling his arms around the blonde to tighten his hold on her, Natsu shifted his attention towards Levy to reply to her question, his voice dry, "U-Uh, they-they are one of those bozos who's been scaring off the people here… And uh..", he casted a fleeting glance back down at the knight again before gazing back up at Levy and Erza, "he-uh he tried to knife me for no reason when I wasn't looking…", his gaze dropped down to the girl in his arms, "That's when she stepped in an-"

"Make way people! Council Rangers coming through! Make way!"

The loud voice that boomed from behind the crowd had the whispers settling down yet only slightly, as every head turned to look toward the source, the group parting into two to give way for three men donning uniforms of black and violet, slightly ruffled up but neat, with full-length sleeves, right bicpes bearing a Maltese Cross in silver- the crest that represented a subdivision of armed force under the Fiorean Magic Council- briskly making their way to the front, their stoic features masking the hours of exertion that the ruckus caused by the perpetrators had demanded from them.

Trailing behind them were a small group of men and women dressed in civilian clothes, but the guild marks adorning the visible part of their bodies didn't take a genius to figure out that they were from another mage guild, probably in a similar situation as Fairy Tail.

The knights abruptly paused mid-step, barely out of the group, their attention solely toward the front.

Natsu's eyes fell wide open, feeling like a deer caught in the headlights.

It didn't take a genius to figure out how fast the trio were to connect the dots – the pinkette who stood wide-eyed at their sudden presence, the bloody unconscious blonde in his arms and the bruised knocked out men behind him.

While the knights stood there dumbfounded, silently speculating the scene, the pinkette stood stiff as a pole, his heart wildly beating against his chest with bated breath, his numb brain quick to figure out how the picture presented itself to them, his blood running cold as the men's eyes widening within a fraction of a second, a reaction which drew the curtain to the little peace he had moments before which the pinkette now realized he would treasure, all the buzzing in his brain lurching to a stop at one word.

'Shit.'

In a flourish of thundering clacks and refulgent magical circles, the uniformed men were armed and ready in record time, their released magical staffs in front of their chests aiming at the paling wide-eyed pinkette whose jaws slackened slightly at his helplessness.

"Uh.."

"PUT THE GIRL DOWN AND STEP AWAY FROM THE MEN!"

"W-Wait I can exp-"

"HANDS BEHIND YOUR HEAD NOW!"

"I-It's not what it looks li-"

"YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO REMAIN SILENT!"

"Please, let me-"

"ANYTHING YOU SAY OR DO CAN AND WILL BE USED AGAINST YOU IN THE HIGH COUNC-"

"WOAH WOAH WOAH!", Gray, who had stumbled out of the group behind the men and bounded over to stand in front of Natsu, cut in, after concluding that the knights were not going to listen to the paling fire mage, not realizing that the knights' staffs were only inches away from his chest, the very staffs that he himself and the fire mage never even wanted a taste of.

Lisanna gasped in horror, dreading the painful buzz the staffs can deliver on one's body (not that she has experienced one) before letting out a shriek, "Gray!"

The ice mage was too busy to concentrate on trying to quell the knights as he extended his arms outwards on either side to shield the stuttering pinkette, raising his voice louder so as to be heard over the uniformed men who were still screaming at the top of their lungs leaving no room for interruptions, "YOU GUYS ARE MAK-!"

"SIR! I NEED YOU TO KINDLY STEP AWAY FROM THE SUSPE-!", the lean silver-haired knight in the middle of the trio, who had lowered his weapon slightly to convince the ice mage to move out of the way, broke off abruptly at the scene that suddenly transpired in front of him, a shiver raking up his spine as he blanched, his voice low and confused as his shoulders slackened, "Wa-wait, Why are you..", suddenly feeling out of breath, he inhaled sharply through his parted lips, his face changing colors, from pale white to natural tone to full-blown red, unconsciously losing his grip on his baton before he fumbled to catch it. Managing to secure his grip on his trusty issued weapon, he snapped his frenzied gaze back on to the raven-haired mage.

His left hand donned in white gloves shot out pointing an accusing finger at Gray, the terror of the current situation gripping at his nerves causing his body to stiffen upright as his voice came out louder and an octave higher sounding as if he was violated, "WHY AND WHEN THE HELL DID YOU TAKE YOUR CLOTHES OFF?!"

His brown-haired partner was quick to act, coming to his aid as he jumped in front of the silver-head, his baton pointed straight at the raven-haired mage, his face stern as he yelled out, "FREEZE PUNK! ON THE GROUND NOW!"

Now Gray was confused, panicking as to why the men suddenly turned on him without reason, his face going sickly white as he leaned back away stiffly as he eyed the staff that was just mere inches away from his face, its end now starting to buzz with lightning yellow sparks. His mouth ran dry as words came out jumbled at first before he too screamed in a higher pitch, "W-Wai-! Wait! Why am I THE ONE GETTING ARRESTED NOW?!"

The brunette knight was quick and prompt with his answer, "FPC SECTION 505, INDECENT EXPOSURE! YOU! ARE UNDER ARREST FOR UNDRESSING IN PUBLIC IN FRONT OF THESE WOMEN AN-"

"Hubbah, Hubbah.."

Everyone went silent as they turned to stare at the commenter; one of the women behind the three knights, clad in shorts and plunge neck crop top, peeking below the hand of her fellow flustered male guild member who had tried to block her vision from the revolting sight, with a smirk donning her face and arms crossed across her busty chest in a relaxed stance.

The corners of the ice mage's lips turned up into a smirk directed back at the woman as his blue eyes relaxed into one that resembled bedroom eyes whenever his confidence boosted courtesy of his playboy side, his outstretched arms lowering a sliver before briefly catching himself, the smirk on his lips falling as his eyes slowly swept past the woman and over to her fellow guildsmen who were throwing dirty looks at him. Or more specifically.. A little south from where his face was supposed to be. Whereas his guildmates were.. Well.. They appeared to be having a deadpanned look that had, "Real smooth, moron" written all over their faces.

That had the ice mage furrowing his brows even more, "What.. are you guys..", his voice faded off as he followed their gazes, his eyes casting a fleeting glance down and back up at them before doing a double take, his eyes widening at the sight of his white shirt, capris pants and black boxers with a white material which he recognized as his underwear peeking out from it, littering around him.

Mind still dazed at his audience's collective attention on him, he looked back up confused at the still ogling people as he still stood spread-eagled, his brain now starting to connect the dots before his head lowered to look back down...there... After a moment's staring, his shoulders suddenly slackened slightly as he let out a subtle, "Oh."

And then the recognition that he was standing there like that, arms outstretched on either side, literally baring his 'jewels' before the law as if he was on display washed over him, feeling like the magic within him had turned the veins in his body to ice from head to toe.

If there was one thing he feared most – besides Fairy Tail's Titania- it would be the dark underground prison cells that had always been in the spine-chilling myths told by the elders of Fairy Tail to him and Natsu and the other guildsmen from a very young age that had them cowering under the blankets.. Even to this very day – an embarrassing secret he would like to take to his death grave, thank you very much.

It was as if their minds were connected as the whole male population of Fairy Tail started got paler and paler at the reminder of those stories while most of the women looked away with what looked like mild irritation, embarrassment clearly out of the picture since they all were used to seeing his pale ass in all its glory and his other...man parts, staring back at them.

The daunting realization of having broken a law in front of The Law that might end him up with a possible arrest had tears suddenly spouting out of his eyes as if a faucet had exploded, as the ice mage let out a loud squawk, his hands flailing around like a stubborn infant before immediately slapping over his manhood as if he had just realized he lost his virginity, "AAAAHHH! NOOO! I CAN EXPLAAAII-!"

"Stop moving or else we be forced to cast Restriction Runes on you..", the purple-haired knight hissed lowly, glowering from his place to right of the silver-head, the ends of his staff crackling profusely with white hot electric sparks. The knight stepped forward deciding to incapacitate a panicking ice mage who was too busy to hear him as he scrambled aroung for his clothes to cover himself up, but Levy jumped in front of him in attempt to protect him from the knight, her voice pleading, "Please wait! This all a big mistake!"

Jet and Droy let loose a horrifying shriek, "Levy-chan! Get ba-"

The purple-haired knight froze mid-step in surprise, immediately reeling away the staff to prevent harm from reaching the petite bluenette, the sparks on the staff dying down instantly, "Ma'am! I need to kindly ask you to step away from the two suspe-"

"Don't you dare call me Ma'am!", Levy growled lowly, her face suddenly turning dark as her eyes narrowed dangerously at the man. Knight or not, she will not tolerate such insults!

"I am not some ol-"

A now fully clothed Gray proceeded to step up behind Levy as he cut in, his voice equally loud yet with attempted politeness so as not to rile up the lawmen even more, "If you guys would just liste-!"

A loud battle cry cut him off, "Come here, you perverted ugly piece of shit!"

Gray let out a yelp in surprise when a hand grabbed him by his collar, yanking him sideways giving him a whiplash before his forehead painfully slammed against another, pain immediately shooting through his head, his ears ringing as he let out another pained yelp.

Blinking his eyes open through the searing pain in his forehead, he found himself staring into green eyes burning with rage, the owner breathing heavily as he fisted a handful of his collar and kept him in his place, "What the hell are you getting at?! Huh?!"

Gray blinked in surprise, recognizing his opponent to be one who had tried to cover the eyes of the woman who had ogled at his naked self earlier, before his eyes immediately narrowed at the man in frustration. He had to convince the knights and get Natsu out harm's way. But this man was wasting his time!

Gritting his teeth in pure vexation, his right hand came up to grip the man's wrist that held him in place as he snarled lowly, "Get the fuck out of my face, pissass!"

That seemed to rile up his blonde-haired opponent even more as he twisted the collar of the ice mage's shirt into a harsher grip, "Listen here you mangy-assed stripper! If you dare-!"

"I don't have time for your bullshit!", Gray's patience was wearing thin. Tightening his grip on the blonde's wrist, he pushed back into his forehead causing the other to momentarily loosen his grip on his collar stumbling back in surprise as Gray ended, "Go pick on someone else for your male dominance shit."

Gray threw one last glare at the man, his right hand coming up to pull up his collar in an attempt to straighten it out, before turning away to focus on the situation at hand, pausing abruptly in mild surprise when he found Levy standing her ground and having an intense shouting match with the brunette knight.

Gray took a moment, his gaze flitting around to take in the situation, sweat-dropping slightly when he saw most of the Fairy Tail men caught up in a similar hostile situation with the men from the other guild, a helpless look suddenly crossing his face, 'How the hell did we end up like this..?'

The silver haired knight who was momentarily thrown off by Gray's display before, came to his senses as he tried to push in between the shouting duo and speak calmly yet loudly over the din, "All of you please calm down!"

Suddenly a force slammed into Gray from behind, courtesy of his screaming blonde opponent, the ice mage lurching forward with a yelp before catching himself in the last minute from falling into Levy.

The silverette must have been one patient man as he calmly tried to pacify the duo who was still ignoring him, "Guys! Please!"

Gray twisted on his feet with a menacing growl, a scowl etched on his face as he shoved the man back hard, "What the hell's wrong with you man?!"

The blonde stumbled back slightly before propelling forward, baring his teeth, "What the hell is wrong with you?!", he pushed the ice mage back with double the force and Gray tripped back with a grunt, failing to catch his footing this time and bumping into the fuming bluenette behind him, the woman letting out a short 'Kya!" as she reeled toward the brunette knight whose eyes widened before stepping back to avoid her, while Jet and Droy scrambled to save the bluenette by hurtling themselves in her way to cushion her fall. The trio ended up with Levy lying back on top of Droy and Jet who had fallen face first into the ground, one's foot in the other's face.

"We need to maintain calm in situations like these..", the silver head tried again, taking a step toward his brown-haired partner who had resumed his shouting match with the petite bluenette who had gotten up as if nothing happened.

A yelp sounded from behind the silverette as Gray lurched back with the blonde man's head buried in his stomach, both of them falling to the ground with the raven-head cushioning the fall.

Having had enough, Gray roared in anger, bulging veins decorating his forehead as he rolled them over and straddled the blonde, fisting a handful of the man's black t-shirt before pulling him towards his face as he reeled back his right hand, preparing to punch the living daylights out of the guy.

By now chaos had broken out, all the men involved in a fight of their own, the silver haired knight clapping a single clap in attempt to gain the crowd's attention, a subtle yet forced smile on his face, "Why don't we all take a deep breath and deal with this matter like adul-"

"WE AIN'T DOIN' NOTHIN'!"

A thump resounded before a burly man larger than Elfman bearing the mark of the other guild on the side of his neck, fell on top of an unsuspecting purple-haired knight who was merely standing away from the group with his staff at the ready, the knight going down with a squawk of surprise. Macao and Wakaba glowered at the bulky man as they dusted off their hands, before triumphant smirks crossed their faces as Macao propped his elbow on his partner-in-crime's shoulder.

"LADY! IF YOU DON'T WANT TO GET HURT, YOU BETTER STEP ASIDE!", the brunette knight shouted, him and Levy now in an intense staring match, both not willing to back down, even if Levy's life depended on it.

To the side, Lisanna groaned in exhaustion, running a hand down her face as she wearily eyed the scene and drawled out a tired whimper, "How did it end up like this?"

Mira couldn't help but giggle at the situation and her sister, "Ara ara.."

The younger sister couldn't fight off the helpless smile that tugged at her lips, as she allowed herself a light chuckle, her gaze still trained on the simmering Levy and the brunette knight while Jet and Droy cheered her on from the sidelines.

Her attention darted towards Gray who was on the ground, the scowl still on his face as he suddenly extended his foot up to plant it into the stomach of his enraged blonde opponent who had charged towards him like an angry bull, sending him hurtling a few feet away, before getting up with mere effort and dusting himself off, harrumphing at the blonde on the ground and turning to walk away.

'I guess that's what makes Fairy Tail, Fairy Tail..'

It seems that the brunette knight had been itching for a fight as he raised his voice again to mask the smugness that crossed his otherwise enraged demeanor, "MA'AM! THIS IS THE LAST WARNING! IF YOU DO NOT STEP AWAY, WE WILL CONSIDER YOU AS AN ACOMPLICE TO THESE TWO SUSPECTS!"

And that might have been just been the thing Levy was looking for as she let out yet another growl, preparing herself to launch at him, "Oh, you asked for-!"

A loud battle cry resonated and Gray, who had opened his mouth to talk to a silent Natsu, let out a tired groan, gritting his teeth as he rolled his eyes in vexation before he twisted around in his place, "You've got to be kidding me!"

"That's it!"

Levy was quick to hold herself back, promptly silencing herself and inwardly crying out a thanks to herself for that quick thought even through her blind rage as she and Gray, who had paused midstep in giving the crazed blonde man a piece of his mind, froze when red hair swished past them at lightning speed.

Bang!

All eyes that had squeezed shut to block out the horrifying sight that had happened, blinked open after a moment later to see a stern-faced Erza who looked unaffected holding Gray's opponent by his hair, the man unconscious as his forehead steamed red from receiving a death blow from her armored hand before she let go of the man who slinked to the cobblestoned ground as if he was boneless.

Eerie silence followed, no one dared to breathe as they stared at the stone-faced redhead who stood there still, one arm akimbo, her cold gaze sweeping over them as if scouting for her next prey.

The knights stood silent as well, the silverette looking unaffected albeit the bead of sweat that trickled down the side of his face showed off his fear, while his partners stood there, white as paper, jaws dropped, on either side, hugging their staffs to their chest as if they were born with them.

Finally after a long moment, Erza finally shifted her gaze back to the knights who immediately stood at attention, the air growing thicker as the weight of the situation finally started to settle upon the Fairy Tail guild members.

"Officers.", Erza started, "On behalf of my guild, Fairy Tai,. I apologize for having wasted your time like this.", the woman bowed as a sign of apology, straightening up after a moment before continuing, locking eyes with the silver-haired knight as she concluded him to be the most responsible one out of the trio, her words coming out slowly as she carefully chose her next words, "But, I believe we deserve to be heard as well before you make any.. conclusions.."

The man nodded as he stepped forward, "Apologies for the shenanigans on our part Miss. And sorry for not properly introducing ourselves earlier. We're from the Demesne Council Rangers. And as you can see, we are in a bit of a dilemma ourselves as well...", he gestured over to the other guild members who had gathered behind his partners, "We were in the middle of a search party bef-"

"Um, K06?"

Everyone snapped their heads towards the voice to find the purple-haired knight step towards the silver-head, his gaze trained on the pinkette.. Or rather.. The injured blonde in his arms.

The purple-head immediately snapped his gaze toward Erza, his expression apologetic, "Uh-Sorry! But before we get to interrogations and stuff, I seriously think your friend over there is in dire need of medical attention.", urgency laced thickly in his voice, seemingly having recognized the gravity of the blonde's condition just then, before directing his gaze back to the silver-head who he regarded as K06, "I need to give her first-aid immediately."

K06 nodded, a grim expression coloring his face, "Go ahead K12."

Everyone watched as K12 strode past Erza towards a silent Natsu who stared at him.

"Here..", the knight's gentle voice broke him out of his muddled state, while the crowd proceeded to murmur in silence amongst them.

Natsu blinked, feeling the man's gloved hand brush against his arm as he helped to support her weight, "We need to lower her down so I can give her first-aid."

Together both of them lowered the blonde gently to the ground, Natsu proceeding to sit cross-legged on the ground so as to cradle her in his lap.

"Natsu.."

The said pinkette looked up, freezing in a crouch, half of the limp blonde's weight supported by the knight and half in his extended arms, finding Erza's steady yet gentle gaze upon him, a stoic Gray and a calm K06 next to her along with his brown-haired partner, their attention trained on him.

The armored mage gestured him over, "Come over here. These officers want to ask you some questions."

Natsu looked torn. He wanted to stay with the purple-haired knight as he tended to the blonde but did not want to be the next victim of the redhead's wrath.

"Go.."

His gaze darted back to his front to see the purple-head looking at him with a calm gaze, "I can handle this.."

Natsu looked unsatisfied with the answer, his gaze wandering down to the blonde now lying on the ground courtesy of the knight, still crouching as he contemplated whether he dared talk back to the redhead or not.

"Don't worry.", his eyes found K12's as the knight smiled reassuringly at him, "I'll look after her for you while you go talk to them.."

Natsu just nodded mutely before slowly getting up and walking over to the group waiting patiently for him, silently staring at them as he awaited their queries.

K06 exuded calmness as he started slowly, "Don't worry. You can be at ease. We just want to ask you a few questions. As long as you believe you haven't done anything wrong, you're clear. Am I understood Mr..."

"Natsu. Natsu Dragneel", the pinkette answered promptly even though voice sounded croaky.

"Ah yes. Mr. Dragneel", the knight nodded to himself as if he remembered, "Fire mage, right?"

Natsu felt a weight on his shoulder, his body immediately tensing up before relaxing the next second when he felt fur brush against his cheek; his exceed partner's silent gesture of telling him he had his back, even though the feline wasn't there with him when everything had went downhill.

Focusing on the situation at hand, Natsu only nodded not bothering to correct the man that he was a Dragon Slayer, too numb to even think about anything, his mind still on the blonde. He didn't like the situation he was in. He didn't like the air he was breathing, too thick..too cold... too gray.. making goosebumps rise on his skin even though he wielded fire. And the way he behaved right now, it befuddled himself of all people.

"Well..", K06 continued, pulling the pinkette out of his dull reverie, " Can you tell us how.. your friend over there.. Got all those wounds on her..?", the man's voice was slow, picking his words carefully as if he was treading on dangerous territory.

K06's gaze flitted over to his purple-haired partner, who was giving first aid treatment to the blonde – an injection for healing easy wounds and bruises - before landing on the men who a laid unconscious a little ways behind the man, and nodded in their direction, "And under what.. Circumstances did you meet them?"

Natsu foreseen these questions but he wasn't prepared on how he would respond to them since this was law enforcement he was answering to. He had to be careful. The situation was fragile. A slight mistake and he could be behind bars underground.

He took a moment to gather his thoughts, a feat that was difficult for him since he never thought anything before action, but given the incidents that lead him here, he felt he needed to think before answering.

Sensing the pinkette's distress, K06 decided to ease him into it as he started for him, "Your friend here..", he gestured over to Erza, "told me the events till, when you all split off from the Giant Wheel. She also tells me that those two guys tried to attack you", he jerked a thumb in the general direction of the two unknown men on the ground as he continued, "and.. you and your friend took them down? Am I correct?"

Natsu swallowed thickly, his throat still dry from not using it for long, his gaze flitting over to the blonde for a second before looking back at K06 and spoke slowly, "Yeah.."

"Any particular reason as to why they would want to attack you two? Have you or friend met them before.. today?"

Natsu gave a meek shake of his head, "No"

K06 hummed in thought, his eyes wandering over to the limp men on the ground, "I see.."

Turning his head over to his brown-haired partner, he asked, "K23, would you mind frisking them?", his gaze flitted over to the bodies, "I'm not sure about the man in black but my gut tells me that the man in our uniform is an imposter.."

K23 gave a brisk nod, "On it.", with two long strides he was kneeling besides the men, his white gloved hands fishing through their pockets.

Turning his attention back to Natsu, K06 continued, "How did your friend get those.. wounds?"

'That's what I would also like to know officer..', the thought made his mood sour, his pink brows furrowing a sliver as his mouth thinned bitterly, his gaze falling to the ground. He would keep that question for later when the girl is fully awake, but right now.. his attention shifted back up to K06.. He was at a loss for words. How the hell was he going to answer?

From the corner of his eyes he could see that everyone was trying as far as they could to lean in closer so as to hear his answer for that one particular question.

His jaws tightened slightly as his gaze went back to the blonde again. Hell of a situation he chose to pull himself into. 'Ugh..', he inwardly rolled his at his misery. His lips pursed. Already his guildmates have proven that they haven't believed that the blonde was his girlfriend. His gaze lingered on her pale face as he breathed out slowly, 'Might as well come clean..' ,although he was sure he would hear a earful from Erza when the situation calmed.

Natsu looked at K06, his face devoid of emotions as he answered, "I'm not sure. Sorry."

The corners of Gray's lips turned down into a frown as he stared at Natsu, 'And he says she's his girlfriend."

K06 shook his head slightly, his eyes narrowing slightly, clearly confused, "I'm sorry, but I thought you were in a romantic relationship with her.", his gaze went to Erza and back to Natsu, "Or have I misundersto-"

"Uh..K06? We've got a situation.."

All heads turned towards the voice to find K23 looking up at the silver-head who replied immediately, "What is it K23?"

The brunette's eyes momentarily flitted down to the man in black before looking back up at K06 again, a contraption that looked similar to lollipop in his gloved hand as held the head which was white in color on the man's forehead.

What he said next had the fire mage's blood running cold.

"This one's not breathing."

The pinkette felt as though someone had punched him in the gut and poured ice cold lead down his throat and spread throughout his entire body, his features turning stiff cold as his breath hitched in his throat. The crowd behind them broke out into another wave of whispers and murmurs.

K06 seemed equally flustered as he forced himself to answer, "Wha-Are you sure, K23? Did you che-"

"Yes, I checked his pulse too K06, just to make sure.", K23's lips tightened into a thin line, before looking over to K12 who had his back turned to him as he examined the blonde's hand which was caked in almost dried blood, but the brunette knew his partner had heard it all, his voice sounding as if he was unsure about it himself, "K12.."

The man snapped his head around to look at his partner with raised brows seeing K12 gesturing over to the men in front of him, "Would you.."

The brunette needn't complete his sentence as the K12 immediately nodded a 'Sure', gently laying the blonde's hand on her stomach before standing up, the brunette taking his place next to blonde as K12 strode over and crouched down in front of the man in black, his eyes raking over the man's form as his gloved hand went up to his neck.

Gray watched as an expression similar to that K23 crossed his features, his lips thinning before looking up at the silver-head beside him and shook his head somberly, "And he didn't die quickly too.", K12 turned away to examine the body more, signaling it was end of discussion. For now..

"Shit..", K06 breathed out, clearly shaken, his hand coming up to rake through his silver locks, before directing his attention to a pale Natsu who had his lips slackened slightly, the pinkette not able to think clearly, a million thoughts swarming in head endlessly.

"Mr. Dragneel."

Natsu slowly turned his attention towards a stern-faced K06, "You said he was the one who tried to attack you right?"

Natsu couldn't even find it in himself to form words and hence resorted to nodding in reply and K06 continued, "And your friend was the one who blocked it?"

Natsu forced out a hum, albeit shaky, yet resolute.

K06 seemed troubled, looking like he was having a tough time trying to form his next question that had the pinkette's heart drop into his stomach, the knight's voice coming out slowly, "Uh, I'm not accusing your friend of anything but did you by any chance see any weapon on her?"

Natsu what the knight was implying at, his breathing coming out short as he stared at K06.

True he knew the girl only for maybe an hour. But he was there with her at the shrine and walked together with her when they got out of the shrine.. Till here.. And from what he could see, the girl wouldn't go to such lengths as to take a life.. And not like that anyway. Why would she torture the guy anyway.. Then could it be that she knew him before..?

His lower lip pursed in a little, his mind going back to the time when she saved him from the man in black, going so far as to blocking the dagger with her own bare hand.. Then at the shrine.. The way she held onto his hands. The way she looked terrified..

'But..', his jaws loosened, his mind going back to the moment he stumbled upon her. His heart thumped hard against his chest when he saw himself at gunpoint again.. The blonde had held the rifle as if she had used it countless times before.. As if it was a part of her..

His eyes drifted back to the blonde..

Now he was not even sure anymore. He wanted to believe that she didn't.. That she wouldn't take a life.. The pinkette swallowed, finding it too hard to do just that...

He took in a deep breath as he tried to recall the events. He was so sure he didn't see any weapon on her-

His eyes widened.

Wait.

'The gun!'

His eyes roamed over her form trying to figure out.

Where the hell was it? It was there when they were in the temple before the monk appeared. Before she changed attire- Wait.. Her clothes!

His brows furrowed in concentration.

His mind flashed to the golden crest of the Royal Knights embellished on her shoulder. His breath hitched. Was that a disguise then..? So, was she a criminal then?

If she was.. then..

He inwardly shook his head. She didn't have the gun on her when they performed the ceremony. Nor did she have it on her when they left temple.

But then.. That light after she pushed him away on the ground. She could have..

His brows furrowed even more..

'But..'

He would have heard the gunshots since he had such sensitive hearing.

He gazed at the blonde some more, the girl vulnerable and helpless, before his eyes momentarily flitted over to the man in black and back to her.

But..

His forehead was damp with cold sweat by now, his breathing harsh and ragged as he looked at the ground distracted.

All these thoughts were too much for him.

Just what in the hell was going on here?!

He closed his eyes, his lips thin and face mirroring pain as he tried to calm his breathing, his mind going back to scene where he was sliding back on the ground. Him shocked to see blood dripping to the cobblestoned ground as the blonde gripped onto the dagger that was meant for him, her grip tightening when the man didn't back down. Him covering his eyes when light engulfed her and the man..

He squeezed his eyes, his jaws clenching in pure anger.

He didn't even want to go there. He didn't want to believe that she would go that far.. No..

'No..'

"A-And forever stay by your side."

"For better,"

"Or for worse."

Her soft voice echoed through his mind, his mind flashing back to the moment they had joined hands when she said her vows.

He could still remember how frightened she looked when they were caught up in that hurricane storm.

"Don't you dare let go!"

"We'll get through this together, Okay?!"

"Together."

The way her hand gripped onto his tightly, determined.

And then, what about when she saved him from this guy?

"That's because he is one of them. Watch out!"

His beat wildly in his chest, his thoughts running haywire, 'No!'

"Natsu!"

Onyx eyes snapped open, his gaze snapping over to Erza who had her hands on his shoulders, apparently trying to shake him out of his thoughts.

His breathing was ragged, his pink bangs stuck to his forehead like second skin as he slouched forward.

What the hell was wrong with him?!

'Why the h-!'

Scorching heat suddenly seared through his right hand and Natsu's lips inwardly curled into a silent snarl as he jerked away from Erza, biting his tongue from crying out in pain before he started jerking his hand as if to relieve the pain.

"Natsu, are you alright?

The redhead's voice fell on deaf ears, his mind starting to race with a million thoughts.

Why the hell was he suddenly intolerant to heat of all things?!

After some shaking and waving the heat, his breathing started to slow down as he lifted his right hand, only to widen in shock.

"What the.."

The words unknowingly slipped past his lips but he didn't care if the others heard him or not.

He had concluded that the heat was due to the magic that was associated with the ring and must have been foreign for him to bear.. But..

Onyx eyes stared at his right hand, that stood bare.

'Where the hell did the ring go?!'

He stared at it for sometime, as if it would magically appear at his will, confusion swirling in his head like a typhoon.

A though occurred to him as his gaze snapped over to blonde on the ground.

But before he could take a step towards her, he was however held in place by a strong hand that he didn't notice was placed back there on his shoulder again, preventing him from finding out his answer. Immediately, his lips curled inward into a snarl wheeling back around to lash out on whoever dared interrupt him only to stop abruptly when he met with Erza's stern gaze.

His temper immediately simmered down, but only slightly, taking a deep breath to calm himself.

"Mr. Dragneel."

His attention snapped towards K06 who seemed to be waiting for his reply to whatever question he had asked him.

"I'm sorry. Could you repeat your question?", Natsu found himself asking before he could stop.

"It's okay. I asked if your friend had any weapon her. It can be something very small. Maybe a penknife or a.. needle perhaps..?"

Even though the pinkette was confused as to why the man was asking about a needle being the cause-of-death weapon he found himself shaking his head nonetheless, confident that he remembered the blonde carrying neither of them. Not that he ever saw or could recall the woman having one on her..

Natsu shook his head both out of self-loathing as well as for not being able to establish strong ground for believing her. He wanted to believe her but.. he had known the girl for about what, only two? Three hours max? And they are now bonded for life? His right hand twitched, his thumb rubbing unconsciously against where his ring should have been on the ring finger.

The silver-head nodded tersely, his eyes drifting to the ground as his brows drew in further, before breathing out heavily through his nose a moment later, looking very much troubled by his thoughts. As if he remembered something, he suddenly snapped his head back up to look at Erza, "Everyone in your group accounted for?"

Gray answered for her, "Actually, we had met up with two of your kind a while ago.."

.

.

.

Night had merely started to make its appearance with the onset of the very few stars which fought to make themselves known through the misty gaps provided by the orange clouds of the evening sky.

Narrowed blue eyes narrowed, sweeping over the crowd which had started to thin. Gray's lips thinned slightly as he watched the shopkeepers close down their booths, worry thick in the air as the hubbub started to die down noticeably. Parents were having a tough time dragging their toddlers who refused to leave, wanting to stay a little longer, but for the older adults safety came over everything else.

The ice mage tuned his attention to listen for the parade that had started over the other block before he had drifted over to where he was now. He was so sure he could hear the parade a moment ago..

"Did the carnival close down already?", Lisanna voiced out the question that had been nagging inside the ice mage's head.

"I thought it went till midnight..?", a sober Cana wondered.

"Maybe they did evacuate the people like they said..?", Mira tried to answer but ended in a question since she was also unsure.

Erza shook her head, her eyes forward as she scanned the area in hopes of finding something that would help back up her answer, "Not possible. Last I heard from them, they had the situation under control and that the carnival would go till midnight as planned. So evacuation is out of the picture.", she shook her head again as if she was trying to convince herself, "They wouldn't unless a critical emergency came up."

"Maybe an emergency came up after that?", Levy looked to Erza with her brows raised in doubt.

Erza shook her head again firmly, "Negative. We all have radios comms. They would have informed us then if they did. They said they would inform us if something like that happened.", Erza raised up her device for emphasis.

Mira hummed as her gaze wandered around the town square, her brows furrowing in thought.

Midnight blue eyes made a careful sweep of the area as the ice mage tried to find any trace salmon pink color for his frienemy.

"MAN!"

Gray cringed, his lips twitching down slightly in irritation at the loudness of the voice.

"Do you have to scream at every manly thing you see?", Macao twisted his little finger inside his ear for effect.

Wakaba chuckled beside him, his cigar propped between his teeth as it slanted to the side as he grinned, "Everything is manly for the guy."

Gray allowed himself a silent snort, his eyes still scavenging the crowd.

The group had met up in the center of the town square on Erza's orders over the lacrima-powered radio transmitters issued to the group by the knights just before they had dispersed hours earlier. Fortunately, the ice mage was lucky enough to stumble upon the group there since he, like the pinkette, was too hyped up about the bet they had made, that he had forgotten to wait till the group had dispersed to receive a walkie-talkie of his own.

Wonder what flame-ass's got..', Gray's eyes wandered up to the sky for a brief moment, the weight of the scroll now feeling heavy inside the pockets of his capris.

Speaking of which...

His eyes drifted over to Erza who was walking a little ways from him to his right, silent and brooding. He still hadn't told her of the scroll yet. He didn't want to panic the others by doing so, nor did he want to say it out loud since he suspected there might be ears listening in on them from everywhere. He had decided once they had made it back to where the knights were stationed, he would reveal it. But only after they had found the pinkette , of course.

'Goddammit Natsu! Where the hell are you?', his attention shifted back over to the crowd, his teeth gritting in irritation.

Everyone had reported their findings as soon as they had met. So far, nothing was looking up. Now they were waiting for the pinkette's input and they would be well on their way to where the knights said they had set up.

"Hey!"

The group turned to look towards the sound to find two knights, dressed in black and violet uniforms, making their way over to them.

"What are you folks still doing here?", one of the knights sporting light green hair reaching till his neck, looked them over as he spoke, "The carnival has been shutdown-"

"We are from Fairy Tail, officers.", Erza cut in, obviously tired from the long evening to hear his reprimand.

Recognition flashed in his brown eyes as the knight let out a sigh.

"What?", Gray cut in, too impatient to wait for the knight's reply, his face morphed into confusion as he asked, "The carnival's shutdown? Why? How come we weren't informed?"

"So something did happen. Didn't it?", Levy was too curious as she too voiced out.

The guild members fell into hushed whispers as they all looked to the knight for an answer.

The knight was taken aback by the sudden flurry of queries thrown at him, doubt marring his features as he stared at them, obviously having a hard time trying to decide where to start from.

Erza stepped forward, raising her armored hand holding her radio comm, "Officer. A while ago only, one of your men had informed us that the carnival will go as planned and that the situation was under control. Then how come suddenly you two appear out of nowhere, saying the carnival is being closed down?"

"Uh, when was this?", the knight next to the green haired one spoke up, curiosity clear on his face.

"Approximately 49 minutes and 22 seconds ago."

Gray resisted the urge to sweat-drop at Erza's approximate reply before frowning when he caught the two knights throw each other a sideways glance, an action they thought was subtle, their features foreboding.

"Did something happen?", the words slipped past his lips before he could prevent them.

Both men snapped their eyes towards Gray before the green haired one immediately scrambled to reply, "Nothing!", his voice was too loud that it even surprised him, straightening up as he tried to look as nonchalant as possible, his tone normal, "Nothing happened. We've got it all-!"

Static crackled in the air startling everyone, the green haired knight scrambling to fish out the source seemingly lodged inside the pockets of his pants.

The device was already emitting an electronic whistle as soon as it was out of its confines before a voice a came out of it.

"All units! Come in all units! Reported 5-8 is now a 5-1. Requesting 5-01 immediately to 15th Corner. Come in all units!"

The two knights immediately snapped their head to throw each other a glance before the green-haired knight immediately tapped on the screen, "This is K4 responding to distress call. Requesting 5-E on the scene, over!"

"Officer K4, what is your 5-10?"

"12th Corner with K7, over! Dispatch, why the hell is 5-8 now 5-1?", the knight, K4's expression was grim as he spoke into the device.

"We have a hostage situation. 21-year old white-haired female reported 5-8, spotted at 15th Corner. Two officers are already on the scene. Current 5-E on the scene- three rogues, armed. Explosives detected, location and type unknown. One officer down. No other civilians involved. All Rune Knights have been notified and en route with ETA 1hour."

The green-haired knight clenched his jaws in frustration, "Dispatch, that still doesn't explain why the situation is a 5-1 instead of a 5-5. Who the hell is that girl?!"

There is a pause on the radio before the woman on the other side answers, as if it was a secret she was not supposed to reveal, "Misuki Akatashi."

His partner let out a surprised grunt, "Wha-!"

The screen lit up with a picture of a girl with white hair, resembling Lisanna at a fleeting glance, all smiles and innocent.

Mira's lips tightened, her heart thudding rather painfully against her ribs. When she came to the carnival with her family, she never knew she would be in this situation.

"What is your ETA, K4?", the woman from the device voiced out.

K4 was grim, letting out a sigh before he responded, "12 minutes.."

"Report your 5-E on arrival. Dispatch out"

K4's eyes flitted over to his partner beside him before he spoke into his device, his voice distant, "K4 over and out.", the device blanked out at the statement.

"What's this about a kidnapping?"

The knights were startled out of their wits, suddenly remembering that they had company as they turned their attention towards Gray.

"Kidnapping?!", Levy gasped, her eyes on Gray whose attention was still trained on the uniformed men in the front.

The knights looked like they were about to deny the situation.

"5-8 is Kidnapping..", Gray spoke up surprising the knights with his knowledge as he stared back at them, "5-E, story on the scene and..", the ice mage let out a breath through his nose as he glanced at Levy who stared at him shock, "5-1 and 5-5 are hostage situations, but on different levels"., his eyes darted back to the still wide-eyed knights, gaze stern as if he was answering a silent question that only he could hear being screamed in their minds, "Yes, I know a thing or two about cop talk. So don't try and deny it. And as long as Fairy Tail is involved, you better start talking.", his statement left no room for negations.

The ice mage wasn't one for behaving disrespectfully to The Law since he knew he could be thrown into jail for even looking at them in disdain, but if the same Law got his family involved in a mess, never intending to get them out, then he was not one to just stand and stare.

"Since you are the ones who requested for our assistance, we deserve to be kept in the loop as well, officers.", Erza's voice was stern as she stared at the two officers who had now gone pale, "So, why is the carnival being evacuated? And what is this about a kidnapping?"

K4 lowered his head with a sigh through his lips before looking back up after a moment of contemplation, his expression distraught, "An hour back, a fireworks booth that was set up for the midnight ceremony had gotten out of control; cause unknown. Casualties reported, but none too major. In the confusion, a girl was reported missing-"

"Then, how come you concluded it as kidnapping?", Gray pushed.

"Agent K4. What's your 5-E?", no one had noticed the device light up, the voice blaring out of it startling everyone out of their wits.

K4 sighed tiredly before lifting the device to his lips, "We're still en route. 5-E in T minus 7 minutes."

"Roger that." , the device blanked out with a crackle.

The man lowered his device before looking up at the group who waiting for his answers, a pleading look crossing his face, "Look. We will all explain to you once the situation has calmed down. Just-Just go to the meeting point and-!"

"We still got one missing from our group, and we won't go without him.", Erza cut in with no room for rejection.

The knight nodded grimly, his lips pursing, "Fine then. Find him fast, and go to the Main Exit as fast as possible. It's not safe to stay around here anymore. We've already got more on our hands than we've asked for."

"I'll come with you."

Everyone turned to look at the voice to see Elfman pushing his way through the group to the front, his face stern as ever.

Levy gasped, "Elfman! You can't ju-!"

"Sir! Please go with your group.", K4 cut in,"You cannot-!"

"I can and will!", Elfman's yelled over them, his expression resolute as ever as he stared down at the knight.

"Elfman.."

The white-haired man snapped around at the sound of the voice, to find his oldest sister looking at him apprehensively, with the youngest sister staring at him from next to her, silently pleading for him not go while all the other guild members looked at him incredulously.

"Are you serious man?!", Gray sounded exasperated, not wanting to make the situation worse.

Elfman threw him a glance before looking back at Mira again, "Mira-nee.. I need to go.. I..", the man was clearly lost for words, looking torn. He let out a breath through his nose as he lowered his head, shoulders drooping before lifting his head up again after a moment to gaze at his sister as he spoke, his eyes momentarily flitting over to Lisanna and back, "That girl.. She.. She looks like our Lis.. I.. I wanna help her. Her parents.. They must-They must be worried as hell."

Mira didn't reply as she stared at him silently, her lips drawn in to keep them from quivering.

Gray stood there silent as he watched Elfman, remorse painted all over the man's face. He recognized that look he wore.. He always wore it whenever he was reminded of the past that happened years ago. A nightmare the three siblings had worked hard to get over, with the support of each other as well from Fairy Tail. The face of the girl that displayed on the knight's screen must have triggered that memory in the Beast Soul mage.

Gray's fist clenched at his side, his lips thinning as he stared at the bulky man with mild irritation... But, the past is past. Everything is over now. Seeing that girl's face and being reminded of it, doesn't mean that he could just go and jump into the fray so that his sins would be forgiven.

"Do you hear what you're saying?!", Gray's voice was low and forbidding.

Elfman sighed softly as he turned to look at the simmering ice mage. A soft smile crossed his face as his eyes glistened slightly surprising Gray. The Beast Soul mage, even though tough on the outside, he was always a sensitive hunk on the inside. Elfman's voice was thick yet soft as he struggled to speak, "I need to go Gray.."

Gray drew in a sharp breath, feeling helpless as he tried to reason with him, "Elf-"

"Go Elfman.."

Elfman's eyes widened as he snapped his head around to look at Mira, an adoring smile on her face as she looked at him, her eyes shimmering with unshed tears, "Promise me you'll come back.."

The lump that had formed in his throat was too painful for him to swallow, his lips tightening as he tried to hold back a sob, his smile tearful as he shakily nodded, "I promise, Nee-chan.. Take care of our Lis for me while I'm gone..", he turned around, not wanting to see the single tear that slipped down his older sister's pale cheek, scared that it would break his resolve, only to snap out of it when he saw the uniformed men shutting their wide open mouths with an audible click of their jaws, obviously defeated on seeing that the bulky man was not taking no for an answer, "Let's go officers."

Behind him, Lisanna looked like she was about to cry as she opened her mouth to tell her brother not to go, but a hand on her arm distracted her, blue eyes snapping to her left to see Mira shaking her head at her, her grip unconsciously tightening, having a hard time herself. The younger girl's hand raised up to place it gently over the hand that gripped her as she turned her gaze back to her brother watching him as he listened to the knights brief him, pixie-cut girl parting her lips to let out a breath she didn't know she was holding in.

They came this far.. There's no telling what lies in store for them.

'But for now...', Lisanna's thoughts trailed off, her thumb brushing over her sister's hand that still held onto her... They will protect each other. She will be her Nee-chan's shoulder and she hers..

Her blue eyes glistened in the low light of the setting sun that peeked through the clouds afar as the younger sister watched her brother who was now nodding brusquely as the knights spoke to him.

Lisanna swallowed before the lump in her throat became too painful.

And together they will support him wherever he may go..

"I'm coming with you, Elfman."

All heads turned, seeing Warren already in front of the group making his way towards the bulky man, "Someone needs to help keep in touch. You never know when these things fail.", he lifted his lacrima walkie-talkie, his brows raised with a small smile.

Elfman smiled back, nodding his thanks.

"I'm coming too!", Max looked brave, his lips pursed, hugging his broom to his chest as he walked over to stand next to Warren who patted his back with grin.

"Hey, wait up!", Alzack stumbled out of the crowd, "I'm coming with you guys!", he threw a smirk, twirling his gun around his index finger by the trigger guard, "You need a sharp eye to watch out for snipers. Never know from where those fuckers open fire."

Elfman smiled while Warren smirked as he nodded, "Thanks man..", he clapped the gun mage's back.

"Then I'm going too!"

The men turned to see Bisca who started trudging her way towards them, face determined.

"Woah! Hold on there!", K4 jumped in, his arms held towards her to prevent her moving forward, surprising the woman as well as the men behind him.

Bisca protested, "Me and Alzack are a team! He nee-"

K4 shook his head solemnly, "I'm sorry miss, but you can't come with us."

"Huh? Why not?!", Alzack was the one who responded from behind the knight.

K4 turned towards Alzack, "I'm sorry sir, your friend can't come. Those men already have a girl as a hostage. And that too.. Her age..", the man immediately turned around to regard Bisca, eyes wide, "It's not that you can't handle yourself! We know you will do just fine. But.. We just.. Don't want to have another case if it happens and repent it for the rest of our lives. I'm sorry."

Bisca looked like sombre as she stared at him. K4 tried again, his voice pleading, "Please Miss.."

"I'll be fine Bisca.."

The woman's eyes darted towards the voice to see Alzack smiling reassuringly at her.

Bisca finally drew in a sharp breath , her eyes falling to the ground as she nodded, albeit shaky, her lips thinning slightly.

A hand rested on her shoulder and Bisca looked to her side to see Erza beside her as she stared at the men, her face devoid of any emotions, "You four have your lacrima comms with you right?", she questioned, her voice domineering.

The men stood at attention as if they were subordinates reporting to their superior officer, as they nodded brusquely, face stern as well, "Yes ma'am!"

Erza nodded, "Good. If something happens, let us know immediately."

"Yes ma'am!"

The gun mage's eyes softened at the redhead beside her. Even though her face appeared neutral, she knew the re-quip mage didn't want to let them go. But she couldn't. She wouldn't. That was not in her books. Not in Fairy Tail's blood.

The corners of her lips turned up ever so slightly as she looked back towards the men who were talking amongst themselves in seriousness, preparing themselves. Her eyes landed on Alazack who talked and nodded animatedly, brows furrowed in concentration as he listened to his partners as well as the knights as they discussed among themselves.

Feeling eyes on him, Alzack suddenly whips his head around, eyes wide, landing on the green-haired woman who was watching him with a soft smile. Even from far he could see the woman's eyes glistening. A soft smile tugged at his lips as he shakes his head at her, subtle enough to go unnoticed by the others, as he made a silent promise in his mind, 'Be strong. I'll be back..'

Bisca's eyes widened slightly, swallowing thickly to fight back her emotions as her thinned lips quiver before her own shaky smile resurfaces her face as throws back a subtle nod of her own, words echoing in her mind, 'Stay safe, you..'

As if on cue, their eyes fall wide open in surprise before snapping their gazes to Alzack's right, a dark red hue settling over their cheeks as Warren greets them with an adoring smile stretching across his face, his arms akimbo, "You two sooooo need to confess."

Steam wafted off his burning red face as Alzack started to stutter, "W-Warren! Why did you-!"

The telepathy mage only raised his brows, sarcasm clearly written on his face, "Eh? What do you take me for? Stupid?"

A pink Bisca and the others watched as Alzack frowned, growling childishly as Warren straightened up, letting out a silent snort, "Come on Captain Obvious, we're moving..", he strode over to the still flustered gun mage to drag him over to the group who had bid their goodbyes and had started to leave with the knights, a chuckling Max lightly whacking Warren on the head as he fell into step with him and the rest along with a blubbering gun mage.

Gray stood silent as he watched the group's receding figures, momentarily landing on Warren who put a finger to his chin and looked up in thought, the last of his words echoing in the distance, "Maybe Captain Oblivious is much more suitable.." The ice mage sighed softly once they were out of sight.

'Stay safe guys..'

"Gray. We need to go!"

Erza's voice snapped him out of his reverie, whipping around at the hastiness in her voice just in time a see a soft white light fading out over the barrack of buildings situated a few blocks away, his mouth slackening slightly in surprise before the disturbance of the group behind him finally caught his attention, his comrades obviously surprised by the light themselves. He stood still listening for any distant shots or bombs which could explain the light but heard none.

Next to him, Erza's stern gaze was on the region where there light had appeared, calculating her way towards it before her boots clacked against the cobbled path as she started her make her way in the direction opposite to that take by Elfman's party, towards the direction of the light.

One half of Gray hoped that they would find the fire dragon slayer there, while his other half hoped otherwise, since the bright white light was always from a powerful spell which the ice mage knew wasn't Natsu's since his spell was always accompanied by some kind of 'boom', the ice mage hoping that his frienemy was somewhere safe.

"Alright people! Let's move it!"

Gray's gaze still lingered on the buildings where the light had disappeared, his lips thinning slightly before letting loose a sigh and turning to follow the red-head.

'I better find you in one piece so I can kick your ass, you stupid Flame-retard..' .

.

.

.

K06 hummed in thought before asking, "And have you gotten any updates from them yet?"

Gray shook his head silently.

"How long ago was this exactly?"

"34 minutes and 17 seconds.", Erza cut in.

Gray held back the urge to roll his eyes, a groan lodged at the back of his throat as he inwardly shook his head, the corners of his lips turning down, 'Do you have to every single time, Erza..?'

"Hmm, I see..", K06 nodded with a hum, his gaze drifting to the ground, his silver brows furrowed in thought and lips thin in trepidation, his eyes flitting left and right as he tried to figure out his next move.

The man suddenly fished out his own device from the pockets of his pants before tapping on the screen which lit to life, muttering lowly to himself, "A 5-1 situation huh.."

Gray watched him, anticipation biting at his nerves, his mind going to how others might be doing now. His blue eyes glimmered when the screen suddenly transitioned to a page in blue with lines depicting the street view as a whole with small dots littering all over.

"Let me check if I can find any communication chain pinned on that case. They might have already have it under the wraps by now..", K06 dragged his thumb panning the map to find relevant dot pinned for the particular case.

Out of the corner of his eyes he saw K12, who was still crouched near the man in black, examining his wounds, suddenly lean back, his face sickly pale, the ice mage snapping his head towards him just in time to see the knight pull up the black cloth that covered the unconscious man's mouth. Gray watched as his attention suddenly shift over to the blood covered knife that lay to the side, a little a ways from where his brunette was currently crouched near the blonde, before scrambling to crawl over to it and pick it up by its relatively clean handle with a white cloth he produced out of his pockets.

Meanwhile next to Gray, Natsu stood silent, his mind flashing between different scenarios that had happened till now. Him at the guild with the others enjoying a sunny day, all of them pushing and shoving each other into the metro to get the best seats in the coach, his green-faced self being knocked out by Erza with an innocent Gray looking away not wanting to be a witness to scene at all, him and Gray competing each other at whatever games they set their sights on..

The pinkette abruptly drew in a sharp breath... Him at the temple, at gunpoint.. The rings..

If only he could turn back time, he would have just knocked Warren out for even suggesting to come here and took up Gramp's offer to go lounge out in the guild's pool..

A high pitched metallic clack resounded throughout and a chill suddenly washed over him, the pinkette too stiff to even lift his head up to look up at the clock tower again. His breath came out heavy and shaky again as he remained motionless. He did not want to admit that he was scared to move. Why he was scared.. He himself didn't know.. He felt that if he so much as turned his head, something would happen. And he did not want to see that or let it happen just because he had turned his head.

He just wanted time to stay as it was..

Suddenly, his lips parted, all his senses returning to him..

'What the..'

His heart thumped loudly.

What in the world was happening to him?

His eyes wandered over to the group beside him. No one seemed to be experiencing what he was feeling now, nor had they realized the change in his demeanor.

"K23! What's the status on that MedCraft?"

The sudden shout that broke through had everyone turn their heads to the right to see K12, who had long ago taken his place back next to the blonde, pull out a thin white band from within a pouch he had strapped to his belt while his other hand held onto the blonde's wrist as he checked her pulse.

K23 stood behind him, furiously tapping away on his device, "I had fired the Blue Signal when you guys were in the middle of interrogation. Should've been here by now..", he frowned at his screen, the intensity of his tapping increasing in frustration, "Dammit! I can't find their location. Let me fire one more-"

"No time!", K12 interrupted, "Alert the Sec Meds and set up a Code Red beacon track. We need to move! And get me Sec Defs while you're at it!", he hurriedly clipped the white band around the blonde's wrist securely, the band immediately coming to life, yellow and green in alternation.

K23 blanched, "Sec Defs?! K12! Why the hell do yo-"

"Why a MedCraft?", Gray yelled over K23.

"Huh?". K06 turned towards an annoyed looking Gray who had his arms crossed across his chest as he asked, "Where are your ambulances? Why wait for a MedCraft to finish its rounds?"

"Uh.. The ambulance services had to be temporarily shut down.", K06 looked away from Gray.

"And may I ask why?", the raven-haired mage asked irritated.

K06 looked back at him sternly, "We are not at liberty to discuss with anyone."

The ice mage gritted his teeth, "Why th-"

"Four bars!", the purple-head's voice broke through, his attention on the white band that lit up with four bars, red to yellow. Tugging on the band gently to make sure it was secured, K12 immediately stood up and turned towards K23, "Did you alert the Sec Meds.", the question was more of an order.

K23 furrowed his brows in response, "What- Why? I've already alerted the MedCraf-"

"Just do it!", K12 snapped.

K23 didn't answer as he went back to staring at the white circular device which went on displaying data and graphs, tapping on it intermittently while K12 pulled a white pistol from his holster.

A hand landed on his shoulder and K12 whipped around with a scowl, preparing to yell at whoever dare distract him, only to catch himself.

"What's going on K12?", K06 looked at him, equally intimidated.

K12's voice was low and grim, "Her temperature's getting cold and her skin's turning. And..", his gaze flitted down over to the man in black for a moment before coming up to regard his partner, his face pale, "There's something el-"

"What do you mean by her skin's turning?", K06 was too alarmed to hear what K12 was about to say next, his eyes frantically raking over the blonde as if he would find his answer there before darting up to meet K12's, "Couldn't it be beca-"

"Wait!", Mira who was at the front of the crowd made her way towards them.

"Natsu is a fire mage.", Mira continued as she reached them, "He can help warm her up until the MedCraft arri-"

She broke off when K12 shook his head briskly, "No. It won't do any good."

Her brows raised as she replied, "Eh? But, if her temperat-"

"Why do you think her body is getting cold even with this warm, humid temperature we are experiencing?", K06 cut in, his features tensed.

"Oh", was all Mira said, her brows furrowed slightly, feeling slightly foolish for having neglected that small detail, 'I didn't think it in that way..'

The air was indeed mellow and muggy, leaving their skin sticky and clothes drenched in sweat.

"It's a sign of magical exhaustion."

Everyone turned to look at a very grim-faced Levy, her brown eyes mirroring worry and anxiety for the injured blonde as she continued, "Its different for different magic types.", the bookworm glanced at to Mira, "So even if we try to keep her warm, unless the level of magic in her Magical Container is over the minimal required point for revival, it's no use. And since magic for a mage is life itself, going below minimal point means death."

"Exactly", K06 nodded, "The body temperature of a person drops below that of the atmosphere, no matter how hot it is-"

"That is not the case and we don't have much time!"

Everyone jumped at K12's outburst.

K06 opened his mouth, about to question K12 who had his attention trained on his own lacrima device.

"Shit! Guys, the signal just blanked out!", K23 suddenly yelled out, holding up his device, the map on it now blank, devoid of the dots and radial lines.

K12 clenched his jaws, his eyes shifting to the side as he muttered, "Thought so.."

He immediately pulled out a white capsule the size of a thumb from his pouch, before slamming it into the butt of his white rifle, the device whistling to life as he pulled at the tail end of its barrel backward before it recoiled to the front, green bars suddenly appearing on it and climbing to the front, giving off a double bleep signaling its ready status.

Lining the lacrima device which now showed a map with a dot on it in his other hand behind the gun which he pointed up into the air, K12 spoke into the contraption.

"Code Peril!"

The gun let out another resounding whistle and the green bars suddenly turned red.

"Attach coordinates.", K12 spoke into his cell and the device blinked, a thin white circle radially closing in on the blinking red dot on the map on the screen, before it disappeared, the red bars on the gun barrel blinking twice before a lock sounded.

K12 lowered the device to his side, holding the gun up as he looked away, his eyes squeezing shut.

"Firing in 3,2,1."

With another mechanical bleep, a loud blast sounded, everyone squeezing their eyes shut at the explosion, following a sharp whoosh. Blinking their eyes open, their jaws parted in awe as bright red light illuminated the area before white smoke encompassed them effectively blinding everyone, a red ball of light blaring through the mist as it rocketed up at lightning speed before bursting in the sky into a series of miniscule sparkling red missiles which shot off into various directions to their assigned destinations.

Everyone followed their gazes at the miniscule bullets that dispersed in awe yet anxiety.

"Okay people! Move it now!"

Everyone snapped out of their dazes, attention shifting back down on K12 who had holstered his gun before crouching next to the blonde again.

"K12.."

The said man glanced back up to K06 who looked distraught, his eyes silently pleading for his partner to give him an explanation.

K12 stood back up, casting a fleeting glance to the side before drifting back to regard his partner, "I'm sorry, K06. I'll explain everything to you on the way. But right now-"

"Mm.. What's that-What's that smell..?"

The pinkette frowned as his eyes darted around the group, mulling over why he wasn't the first to sense the smell before them owing to his slayer nose, the thought dissolving into mush as soon as the scent entered his nose, the voices around him dying down as his eyes fluttering shut.

His eyes started to droop against his will and his brows immediately scrunched inward at the involuntary action, irritation starting to eat at him again at not knowing what the hell was happening to him.

His mouth ran dry and it seemed like he suddenly lost his voice.

The thump of his heart that echoed in his ears was slow yet it seemed to shake the very core of his being, keeping him wide awake.

Another metallic clack echoed throughout, his ears twitching in annoyance and yet the cold trepidation that filled his entire being was enough for him to keep him in place.

Every dull hazy sound that rang around him, every color that his eyes lazily swept over, every whisper of a wind that feathered his sweaty cold skin..

Everything was making him dizzy.

He could hear everything that happened inside his body. He could hear his slow labored breaths. He could hear every ripple his heart made as it pumped blood into him each time.

He wanted to shout out loud.. To let out his annoyance.. His distress.. Everything that he was feeling.. He wanted to let it out...

And yet his mouth wasn't even opening at his will. His tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth as if he was born like that.

His face twisted in annoyance, eyes scrunching up in sheer distress at his inability to help himself.

And the metallic clack that resounded intermittently wasn't helping his condition any better.

It was really making his head swim, his sensitive ears ringing endlessly.

His head snapped to the side in hopes of avoiding the sound, 'What the hell is that?!'

And again, that same scent assaulted his nose.

He tilted up his head and unconsciously began to sniff, his eyes unconsciously drooping shut as a low hum rumbled in his chest, the sound forgotten.

The corner of his lips tugged up slightly, his features starting to relax a little.

The smell was soothing.

'Fire.. So..warm..'

His nose was up in the air, whipping left and right as he tried to pinpoint the source, his movement albeit appearing drunk and uncoordinated. His eyelids felt like cold lead, the coolness of the skin delightful against his eyes as they drooped against his own will, but he fought to blink them open.

Clack!

His head whipped around, pink brows scrunching up as he forced to keep his drooping eyes a sliver open, his head titled up, willing his eyes to roam left and right in search of the source before freezing on the blurry image of the Town Clock Tower that stood tall, proudly overlooking the town. His eyes stood fixated on the gigantic structure, as if it was the one thing that prevented his gaze from straying away from it. He stared at the large hand that stood against the white dial of the clock, almost at the fifth Roman numeral.

The alluring scent forgotten, the pinkette not knowing how long stood there motionless like that, with his head titled up so as to get a better view through the gap between his heavy lids which he kept open with all his might, the fire mage on the verge of falling asleep any moment if he let his eyes close.

Clack!

As if on command, his eyes fell wide open and his heart thumped rather loudly in his chest, his whole frame thrumming along before dark cold fear started to grip at him, keeping his whole body frozen. His lips parted as his breath hitched in his throat, another thump echoing from his heart.

Despite the fear that gripped his body, the pinkette felt like he was completed detached from it, and yet he could feel everything that happened to it, but he didn't care for that. All he cared for was the imposing tower that stood afar, his eyes following the large second hand as it neared the twelfth Roman numeral.. Nearing the end of another minute.

His breath stopped as soon as the second hand did a touchdown at the head of the dial.

Clack!

The minute hand slid to rest a minute away from the tenth numeral, the resounding sound that echoed from it, resounding loudly in his ears.

The next moment found the pinkette drawing in a sharp breath as his mind went blank, a flurry of images flashing before his eyes.

Ginormous white dial of a clock, a glimpse of the minute hand away from the top stationed to the left..

.

.

The back of a hooded figure in dark, the ends of the cloak fluttering ever so lightly in a wind that was not present.

.

.

The shrill scream of a woman ringing throughout the air as embers flew up from the raging fire that blazed all around the debris of buildings unrecognizable, shrouded in thick black smoke.

.

.

The Town Clock Tower... The small hour hand already at six, and yet... the large hand was still before twelve...

.

.

The pinkette let out a sharp gasp, onyx eyes roaming around in panic, as his heart raged in his chest, going miles per second, as he panted harshly.

His eyes watered as his throat ran dry, his body now drenched in cold sweat as he slouched forward a little, 'What in fucking hell was that?!'

His ears rang as he tried to calm his beating heart, his mind registering his surroundings as he squinted through his pink bangs that stuck to his drenched forehead, his eyes roaming over his guild members, the knights, Gray, Erza, Happy.. Lu-

He suppressed a yelp, letting out a hiss when his right hand ring finger burned again at the junction where the ornament was supposed to be, his head snapping towards his hand with a scowl etched on his face as gritted his teeth in pure vexation while he frantically waved the appendage in an attempt to cool it down.

'Where the fuck did that damn ring go?!'

If it wasn't on him, then why the hell was his hand burning like he never wielded fire in his life.

Suddenly his eyes widened, snapping his head towards the blonde that lay on the ground beside K12 and K06.

'The ring!'

"Naw.. I think... I think its.. It's booze!"

His eyes darted over to Cana who swayed left and right, trying to maintain her balance, a lazy smile on her face.

The pinkette frowned. Since when did Cana get drunk.. Everyone knew she never got drunk out of her wits unless if it was for competition.. Which was out of the picture here..

A giggle sounded and Natsu darted his eyes over to Lisanna who slapped a hand over Cana's back, before leaning on her, "Oh Cana. Is that all you can think of? It's not booze silly. It's-"

The pinkette jolted in his place, a blush threatening to adorn his cheeks when Lisanna suddenly buried her face into Cana's dark brown hair splayed on her shoulder, her arms immediately wrapping around the still smiling card mage's shoulders as she let out a loud contented sigh. Cana let out a loud laugh as she brought up a hand to lazily pat the Take Over mage's back prompting the girl to nuzzle her face even deeper.

Somewhere during the scene, his jaws had slackened, pure surprise coloring his tan face, stunned that the white-haired girl had chosen the card mage for satiating her cuddling needs, since the brunette was notorious for her….touchy-feely behavior.

Out of the corner of his eyes he spotted Mira standing there still. The strange behavior drew his attention over to her, jolting in his place when he saw the wide smile that was stretched across her face, her hands loosely clasped in front of her, resting below her stomach.

He watched with wide eyes, too intimidated to move, as the white-haired woman leaned her head back, her chest expanding slowly as she took in a deep whiff causing Natsu to shiver, watching as her white locks fluttered in the soft breeze that brushed past her, her dress billowing gently in the wind that had started gather around her frame.

The pinkette let out a startled squawk when a dark violet magic circle suddenly appeared underneath her and before he knew it, he found himself staring at the girl whom he knew back when he joined the guild.. Gone was the softness to her features, the air of cheeriness that had always surrounded Fairy Tail's resident barmaid now replaced by a daring yet mischievous aura that exuded from the busty white-haired woman donning a dark gothic-looking attire which consisted of a black skimpy sleeveless shirt paired up with black leather shorts held up by a studded metallic buckle that resembled a demon with thigh-high stiletto heeled boots that did well to show off her pale skinned legs.

Unaware that he was holding in his breath, Natsu watched as the she-devil slowly turned her head around, her high ponytail held by a large black ribbon swishing behind her frame elegantly as her dark orbs raked the scene as if searching for her prey, dark mischief coloring her face, the smirk she wore, enough to scare the Council Knights back to their headquarters. Her eyes froze on a point that the pinkette could not make out, her smirk widening a sliver as she slowly maneuvered her way through the confused crowd of guildmates, each clack of her heel against the cobblestoned path causing Natsu's heart to thud heavier and heavier.

"Oh God..", the words had slipped his lips involuntarily, as the pale-faced fire mage helplessly watched Fairy Tail's old tomboy Mira saunter towards the re-quip mage who had sometime earlier made her way amongst the guild members, her back to the transformed barmaid with her arms akimbo.

"Oh boy.."

Natsu jolted in his place at Happy's voice, having forgotten that the feline had perched upon his shoulder earlier, the action not going unnoticed by the exceed who had snapped his head to look at his partner with mild confusion since the fire dragon slayer, although infamous for forgetting names and faces except for scents, was always alert of his surroundings.

The feline set it aside for later, deciding not to upset his partner any further at the moment since the pinkette was obviously distracted, the exceed summoning his wings after making a mental note to question him later as he took off from the fire mage's shoulder, keeping his eyes still trained on the pinkette whose attention had long ago turned away from him. Happy followed his gaze before the furs on his body bristled, his jaw falling open to let out a squawk.

The white-haired demon had raised her hand, about to place on the unaware Titania's armored shoulder, the pinkette jumping in his place when Erza suddenly whirled around to face the she-demon, her face stern as ever. However, the sword mage seemed to see through the woman as if she was an invisible entity, sniffing indignantly, "I smell laziness..", the corners of the red-haired woman turned down into a frown as she extended her left armored hand to her side, light suddenly gathering in her palm at her silent command before morphing into a long sword, her hand curling around its black hilt with a practiced grip as she walked past the white-haired demon.

Erza froze mid-step when Mira stood in her way, the smirk still on the white-haired mage's face, her voice soft yet taunting, "Ah Erza.. It's been long since we've had a duel.", Mira's eyes raked down the redhead's body slowly, her arms coming to cross across her busty chest as she finished with a short silent chuckle, "Let's see who is worthy to be crowned the Queen of Fairy Tail, shall we?"

"It's the smell of old parchment paper..", Natsu snapped his head towards Levy who sighed a little ways from him, a soft adoring smile on her face, her chin tilted up as she tried to sniff more, the bookworm looking forlorn like one who missed home after having been away for a decade.

Natsu's jaw slackened as his eyes roamed around to take in the condition of the rest of his guildmates, 'What in the world is happening here..?'

"Are you kidding? It's obviously ice."

The confident voice pulled the fire mage's attention towards Gray whose face looked serene, yet his posture exuded confidence as he had his arms crossed across his chest, seemingly happy to be in his type of climate. Natsu had to hold back a scoff as he eyed the ice mage who seemed to have a soft glow about him as light mist emanated from his figure.

While he watched Gray, a frantic Happy suddenly flew past in front of the ice mage with a surprised cry, shuttling towards Lisanna and Cana to separate them as the girls were by now practically choking each other with their hugs, neither of them in their right minds to even realize they were strangling each other, causing Gray to suddenly shoot a dirty look at the feline.

"Do not disturb me when I'm-"

"How the hell do you even smell ice man!", Macao guffawed before resuming to sniff, "Nah.. It's someth-"

"It's cigars from Crocus..", Wakaba groaned in needy, "Ugh.. I miss those babies.."

His guildmates were all spouting gibberish and Natsu's forehead creased, his head lowering, helplessness eating at him.

'Oh god.. Please make it stop..'

"Ho..?"

His head snapped towards the low sinister voice and his eyes widened with dread.

There stood Erza, her sword in her hand and her gaze towards the ground.

Natsu followed her gaze and his lips parted to breathe in sharply.

K12 who was silently observing the state of the guildmates whipped his head around when he heard Erza behind him before letting out a surprised grunt of his own when the redhead's face overshadowed under her bangs, twisted sinisterly as she lifted her right boot-clad foot to nudge the bloody unconscious blonde on the ground.

"Hey..", her tone was so low and promising punishment that even the purple haired knight flinched, as the redhead went on prodding the blonde again with her foot, "Why the hell are you sleeping, hmm?"

Seeing the blonde unresponsive, the armored mage lowered her head slightly, muttering lowly, "When someone talks to you, it is proper manner for you to respond back..", she raised her sword so that it was hovering above the blonde, pointing at her face, K12 going pale at the action as he demanded, "Hey, you need to snap out of it!"

Letting out a loud battle cry, Erza raised her sword above her head.

K12 let out a shout of surprise as he lurched towards the blonde, thrusting his hand towards his baton clipped to his hip by the belt, but suddenly caught himself at the last moment.

He watched with wide eyes as Erza's face twisted in pure vexation, gritting her teeth as she tried to put force into her right armored hand that wielded her sword that was stuck raised to her shoulder level, before she tried to shake her arms, trying to break free of the tanned hand that gripped her from doing so.

"That's enough, Erza.."

Onyx eyes narrowed at her brown ones, teetering on the borderline of narrowing into slits, his voice low with warning as Natsu tightened his grip on her arm, the heat from his skin climbing up unconsciously.

"Let.. go.", her voice was strained as she gritted out, trying to overpower Natsu, his black sandal clad feet sliding just a sliver at her force, before the redhead changed tactics, reeling back her other armored hand to her side and curling into a fist before bringing it forward to aim a punch at his face, but the pinkette caught it in his steaming left hand in the nick of time, before snarling out, "I said.. That's enough!", with a yell, the simmering fire mage shoved her back, far enough to give him time to establish proper guard in front of the limp blonde, squaring his shoulders, preparing for another attack.

"You dare question my actions?", the redhead glowered at Natsu with an air of dominance about her while the pinkette remained silent as he watched her carefully. He was on full alert now, his ears sharp as he listened to his surroundings. The redhead was not the only problem at hand, the fire mage concluding from his observation of the current situation that the others can also turn on him at any moment.

His silence seemed to have spurred her on, as Erza straightened up with a silent chuckle in indignation, her stern gaze still trained on the pinkette as she lowered her sword which dissolved in a shimmer, before a red magic circle materialized under her as she challenged, "Let me show you what happens when you go against the Queen of Fairies."

His eyes widened as his lips curled inward into a snarl, "What the hell is wrong with you?! Snap out of it!", he leaned forward, planting his feet firmly into the ground as he prepared to lurch forward to pin her down to stop her from going further with her requiping spell.

Suddenly the redhead gasped startling the pinkette, her eyes widening in shock as her body arched back slightly in pain before abruptly falling to her knees, the magic circle disappearing as fast as it had come, the light diminishing along with it.

A wide-eyed Natsu stared in apprehension at Erza who was on her hands and knees in the middle of a huge coughing fit, her scarlet hair curtaining her face.

"Sorry.."

Natsu snapped his gaze up to see K12 behind a still crumpled Erza as he eyed her warily, his hand midway in the air holding a thin metallic cylinder that resembled a pen, its long shimmering needle almost invisible if it weren't the light that reflected off of it.

The knight let out a breath as he lowered the cylinder, Natsu not able to take his gaze off it as he asked K12, out of breath, "What the hell happened?"

His gaze on Erza was still wary, the armored mage's coughs which by now had reduced to heavy panting as K12 answered, "Three Stages of Puppetry."

Natsu's eyes snapped up towards K12 whose attention wasn't on him, gaze rapidly sweeping around at the rest of the guild members who were still in their own world, his brows furrowing in confusion as the fire mage asked back, "What?"

K12 snapped his attention back to Natsu before looking down at the blonde, "There's no time. I will explain it to you on the way to the hospital.", his voice was urgent as he locked gazes with Natsu, "Wait here with her!"

Natsu nodded brusquely, kneeling next to the blonde, while K12 strode towards a confused pale-faced K06 as he pulled out another slim cylinder from a grey pouch he produced from the small purse clipped to his belt, yanking the silver-head's hand towards him which snapped the man's attention on him as the purple-head thrust the needle into his hand, "Here. Administer this to everyone."

K06 looked down to the delicate looking cylinder in his open gloved palm before looking up to respond to K12 but he was already on his way towards the rest of the guildmates.

"What about me? I'll also hel-"

"Were you able to get the Sec Defs on?", K12 cut in, his features screaming jittery as he awaited the brunette's reply.

K23 deflated, his voice coming out meek looking like he was preparing himself to hear a scolding from K12, "No-"

"Then keep trying!", K12 barked out before making his way towards the still frenzied group, K06 following close behind.

Natsu watched as the pair rushed around his and the other guild mates, pricking their necks with the needles with little or more difficulty, one by one the members abruptly stopping whatever shenanigans they were creating as if their power switch was turned off, before falling to their knees as if they were newborns.

"Why am I on the ground..?"

His gaze darted down to the source to find Erza who was now resting her weight on her knees, her face surprised as she blinked and looked around her before looking back up at him before stumbling to get up, "What the hell happened?", her legs were still slightly shaky as she tried to regain her footing.

Natsu contemplated whether to tell the redhead about how he went up against her for a girl, who he knew for only an hour and yet somehow got married to her..

"Natsu!", Erza snapped, clearly irritated at his silence, the said mage flinching at her tone as he stared at her, opening his mouth which suddenly felt dry as if someone had poured sand into it as no voice came out.

"Titania.."

Erza immediately whirled around at her pet name, finding herself face to face with Mira, her brows raising in surprise on seeing the woman dressed in her old attire as she stood in front of her before she smirked in challenge at the still wide-eyed redhead, "Let's have that battle shall we?"

Erza's jaw slackened, still shocked at her change, her voice breathy, "Mira.."

She took a step back when Mira took a step toward her, her armored hand extending to her right to summon her sword which reappeared in a burst of light while she quickly snapped her head to look at Natsu in alarm, whipping her head forward again to regard the demoness before taking another step back when Mira neared her again, "What the hell is happening, Natsu?! Why the hell is Mir-!"

Her eyes widened when the demoness winced suddenly, a small whimper escaping her throat as head tilted to the side slightly before falling to her knees, her figure engulfing in violet shimmers before disappearing, leaving a disgruntled Mira, dressed in her normal maroon summer dress, panting heavily on her hands and knees.

K12 strode passed Mira as if nothing happened, his eyes making a careful scan of the group to make sure he didn't miss anyone else, "I think that's the last of them..", he turned his head to regard K06 who reached him, "If we don't get them out of here, we won't be able to do anything when the Second Stage happens.."

K06's eyes widened slightly, opening his mouth to ask but K12 cut him off as if he already knew what he was about to ask, "No. We were given those shots remember? Before we were dispatched from the precinct?"

The silver head closed his mouth, nodding silently before turning around to regard the group once more, the members now one by one slowly coming to their wits as they stumbled to their feet, confusion marring their faces as they tried to recollect what had happened moments before.

K23 tapped on the purple-head's shoulder, "I see some of our green pins bleeping nearby.", he shook his device screen as he continued, "You guys wait right here while I go check. If they have a vehicle with them then we can take her and the others to the hospice ASAP.", he jerked his thumb behind him in the general direction of where the blonde was lying unconscious on the ground.

K12's lips tightened, keeping silent for a second as if pondering over something before giving a terse nod, "Yeah, go ahead.."

"Will ping you shortly!", K23 replied, making his way to the end of the block, K12's eyes staying trained on him as he watched him sideways, his features tensed.

As soon as the brunette was out of sight, the knight swiftly turned around to face Natsu, his voice slightly low yet urgent as if someone might hear him, "Right. We need to get your friend out of here befo-"

"Hey…", Cana's low muggy voice broke through, the knights, Natsu, Mira and Erza turning to regard her, but the brunette's sleepy attention was somewhere behind them as she lifted a lazy hand to point ahead, "That was what you guys were crying about?"

Everyone whipped their heads around to look at what the card mage was pointing at, Natsu, too busy to mind the sudden weight on his shoulder as Happy lightly landed on his shoulder again, as his jaws loosened along with his widening eyes.

Over a couple of miles away in the sky, a shadow, the shape of a craft appeared amongst the dark clouds, its wings concealed by the condensed water vapors.

Both knights squinted their eyes to get a better look at the craft, K06 muttering low, "I can't see the serial number on it.. Can you K12?"

K12 hummed lowly, mimicking K06 as he tried to scan the craft.

"That's not an M-Craft."

Natsu's attention darted to his side to see Gray standing next to him, finally out of his daze from before, his expression serious as he observed the craft "It's not even remotely close to an M-Craft", he muttered low sounding distracted, before he abruptly fished out his lacrima cellphone from the pocket of his pants, tapping on the screen before holding it up against the sky.

"Gray. It's obviously a MedCraft responding to the distress signal.", Cana waved a hand over the approaching carrier before crossing her arms over her chest.

"No..", Gray replied distractedly, playing with screen of his device.

The pinkette craned his head over the ice mage's shoulder, trying to get a peek at his screen to see the enlarged image of the crafter captured by the camera that was turned on in his device, as the raven-haired mage slightly moved his device left and right so that he could get some kind of sign that would help him prove his previous statement.

"Why didn't I think of that..?", K12 looked surprised as he realized what Gray was doing before fishing out his own device, K06 peeking into his screen as his partner activated his camera as well.

"See? You can clearly see the plus sign on that craft.", a slender hand appeared from Gray's other side, over his left shoulder, as Mira appeared beside him, her gaze on the screen.

"Where?", Gray's brow furrowed.

"Right there.. See?", Mira hovered her finger on the screen, gesturing over the portion where a red mark now materialized as the fog cleared up.

"W-We need to go now!", K12's voice broke through, thrusting his device into his pockets, hurriedly zipping up his pouch on his belt, before pushing past K06 towards Natsu, his face pale as he breathed shakily.

"K12, what is wrong?!", K06 asked frantically as he followed after his partner, "Isn't that an M-Craft?"

K12 didn't reply, his features shaken as he knelt next to the blonde and lifted her wrist on which the white band was clipped, the last of the two green bars now blinking.

"What the-!", Gray suddenly let out a surprised grunt, before reeling back to look at K12, his voice loud and demanding, "Would you mind explaining why the hell there is a freaking Weapons Carrier flying over a small harbor town?!"

"Gray.", Erza's tone was reprimanding, "What are you going on about?"

Gray swiveled around to face the red head, his voice stern yet low as if trying to warn her, "Erza", his hand shot out to point towards the crafter which was now a few blocks away, "That is a weapons carrier gunner craft, Raptor, used for Nuclear wars."

"What..?", her voice sounded detached as Erza's jaw slackened. Her face went deathly pale as her eyes unconsciously wandered over to the crafter, as the armored mage stood rooted to the spot as she relived a past that haunted her.

"Gray.", Mira voiced out, her eyes still trained on the ice mage's device in her hand, "Are you sure it's not a plus?", she looked at him, "You know.. Plus for medical.."

"No Mira..", Gray shook his head, hurrying over to her as he gestured over the screen, "It's inscribed on a rotating dial, see?"

Gray took the device from, tapped on it to capture the image, pinching on the screen to expand it before showing it to white haired mage again, "See..?", he circled his index finger over the image, "C-X6"

Mira let out a low 'Ah..'

"C-X6?!"

The device was grabbed out of Mira's hands, K12 glaring into the screen before he fisted his left gloved hand and place it over his mouth in exasperation, "Shit.."

He numbly thrusted the device back to Mira who caught in nick of time, before shakily tapping at his own device, K06 letting out a relieved sigh oblivious of the fear running through K12.

"That's even more great. I thought that craft was halfway to the next town hospital by now.", K06 smiled at K12, "K12, We could flag them dow-"

"That is not great K06! In fact it's the opposite of great!", K12 cried out before snapping his gaze to Natsu, "Can you carry her?", Natsu immediately nodded, swiftly turning around to kneel beside the blonde to scoop her in his arms, Happy jumping down to help his partner, as K12 abruptly snapped his head towards his partner in confusion, "Wait.. What do you mean halfway to Croc-! Did you see this craft earlier today?!"

K06 nodded innocently, "Yeah! A couple of hours into the carnival actually. Right around the time when all hell broke loose.", the man tilted his head up as if recalling the earlier events, "We had a lot of casualties and we were informed that even the nearest hospitals were full. Luckily Fiorean Council were gracious enough to dispatch us this baby..", he gestured over to the craft, now around few hundred yards away, its size gigantic enough to bring a tremor to the fire mage's heart as he stared at it when he got back up again with the blonde secure in his arms.

K12's lips thinned, curling inwards before dragging his gloved palm again over his mouth, his gaze on the ground as if he would find his answer there, K06 furrowing his brows in worry at his partner's odd behavior, "What is it K12.. Now that the Council is here, shouldn't we be less worried?"

There was a long pause, the air thick and condensed with eerie silence sans for the murmurs and hush hush from the guild members surrounding them, waiting for K12's response.

The purple-haired knight turned around to look at K06, his voice slow, "K06.. C-X6 was bombed down eleven years back.. Around the time the Great Cold War took place.."

K06 went deathly pale at this, his jaw dropping open as he reeled back, "Wha-what..?"

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but is it me or are those extensions on that thing just for show off?", Cana raised an irritated brow as she stared at the nearing crafter.

Everyone followed the brunette's gaze.

Gray's jaws dropped and so did other's.

Natsu who followed their gazes a moment later suddenly froze, his breath hitching in his throat.

About a couple of yards away floated the ginormous crafter, the 'extensions' now fully out, the metal canons and barrels shimmering in the faint light that had managed to seep through the dense dark clouds, the crafter seemingly armed and ready.

"What in the name of-!", K06 stepped forward as he eyed the crafter before swiveling back to look at K12, "K12! How the hell is thing here?!"

K12 didn't know how to respond as he stared up at the crafter, trying to figure out his next move.

Suddenly his eyes widened and he fished out his device back out of the pockets before tapping furiously on the screen.

K06 seemed confused at his partner's behavior, "K12. What are y-"

A bleep sounded before a female mechanical voice sounded out from the device.

'Trying to establish radio communication with C-X6. Standby..'

They watched as the screen blinked rapidly, a radar appearing around a blinking orange dot which Gray guessed was the crafter.

A high pitched bleep sounded.

'Connection established successfully.'

"Wait.. K12 what are you doing..?", K06 hissed as he gripped his partner's shoulder.

"Couldn't hurt trying..", K12 wasted no time in pressing the side button, before holding the device near his mouth, "C-X6. This is the Demesne Ranger Council. Requesting to identify yourselves. Over."

Everyone watched with bated breaths, in hopes that the crafter would respond through the device.

Heartbeats echoed in ears again as his breath became heavy, the periodical low clack of the Town Clock Tower suddenly sending him pale. 'Not again..'

Cold sweat lined his brows, his vision starting to blur and Natsu blinked rapidly, trying to clear up the haziness.

And as soon as it came, it disappeared. His vision was clear once again. The crafter still taking up half of the scene before him as it floated in all its proud glory a little ways from them in the sky.

Suddenly an optical crosshair, fluorescent green in color, conjured in front of what they guessed it to be the cockpit of the crafter, before a series of miniscule red dots appeared on it.

K06 immediately took a step back in surprise, "K12. Is it doing what I think it's doing?!"

"Shit!", K12 growled, gripping the device tighter in gloved hand.

"C-X6! This is the Demesne Council Knights. We have civilians on the ground. I repeat, we have civilians on the ground. Do not open fire. I repeat. Do not open fire!. Over!

His vision blurred again and the pinkette rapidly shook his head.

"Watch out!"

Natsu didn't have time to breath as he felt arms wrap around slightly, his body forced to the right suddenly before feeling a vice grip on his left shoulder and right arm.

He didn't know when he had squeezed his eyes shut, but when he squinted them open, they fell open wide, his jaws slackening, on seeing K12's purple head a breath's apart from his face before the man himself shakily lifted his head.

K12's eyes were slightly narrowed in pain, his left eye wincing when he locked gazes with Natsu as he breathed harshly.

Natsu stood rooted to the spot, his mind blank yet having a firm grip on the blonde in his arms, as if making sure she was still with him, as K12 took in shaky breath, his voice coming out feeble yet forced.

"P-Please.. Keep her safe..", Natsu's eyes widened slightly when the knight shakily placed a hand on the blonde's thigh covered by her top, feeling for her pockets before hastily pushing his device into her pocket and sealing it shut, as he lowly mumbled out for only Natsu to hear, "When I give the signal, run straight for the tower.", he nodded behind him towards the clock tower, "The-The response team will meet up with you, along with the Emergency Medical Team. When they do, ask specifically for-", K12 paused to swallow thickly, cringing in pain as he did so, sucking in a deep breath, before continuing, "-for Head of the EMT, Doctor June and give this to the doc and no one else. The doc will know what to do.", his eyes drifted down and tapped over the pocket, a loose gesture of making sure it was safely pocketed. The knight abruptly froze, his hand immediately going over to the band clipped on her wrist, the sight of the fourth green bar that had started to blink causing him to tense, before his gaze snapped to the pinkette's, tapping gently on the blonde's wrist-band "And..One more thing. As soon as the last bar is reached, she will go into shock and die.."

His heart dropped in his chest, breath forgotten as K12 forcibly swallowed before panting again, painfully turning around to stand in front of Natsu as if trying to protect him.

The purple-head shakily pulled out the small white baton attached to his belt before jerking it, the baton responding by extending lengthwise in white light.

Natsu's eyes unconsciously wandered to the side to see an equally staggering K06 with a staff in his hand as well.

"K06.. Are you alright?"

Natsu's attention wandered over to K12 who was staring at the said knight.

The platinum-head looked back at him, pain clearly etched on his features, before nodding.

It was as clear as day that both of them where fighting to stay awake.

Yet, the pinkette couldn't find the cause of the knights' discomfort as his eyes roamed over their body.

His senses were numb. Cold fear coursing through him uninvited, keeping him rooted to the spot.

His jaws clenched as he willed himself to move before snapping his head to look at the others who were staring dumbly at the craft and some at the knights.

All of the members looked as if they were dolls controlled by a puppetteer.

'Three Stages of Puppetry'

K12's voice echoed inside his head, his gaze wandering slowly and carefully.

'Where's the puppeteer..?'

His body tensed, his senses on high alert. Although the mechanical part of his mind was not working properly, his thought processes were still intact.

He carefully observed the surroundings with caution.

Everyone seemed fine. No one seemed hurt. Either that, or they still were dazed to even realize what was going on.

"There wasn't a crafter the last time this happened.", he heard K06 mutter.

Natsu's brow immediately raised up in surprise, 'Last time?!'

"Pull yourself together K06.", K12's tone was urgent, "We don't want a repeat of that again. We need to get these guys out of here ASAP and get them detoxified as soon as possible. We don't have much time.", the purple-head glanced at the ground, grimacing before darting his gaze towards the guildmates.

Natsu's gaze snapped downward to see Happy also silent as he stared dumbly up at the crafter, unmoving. The pinkette opened his mouth to ask he was alright when his gaze caught on something else, his eyes widening.

'What the-!'

The cobblestoned path now glittered as if coated in a layer of thin hairline crystals as Natsu scanned the sharp semi-transparent onyx needles, the size of a mere grass blade.

K12 who was scanning the dazed guild members, clenched his teeth at the lack of response.

"All of you! Snap out of it!"

Silence.

Natsu's gaze wandered over to Gray and Erza, who were trying to squint as if their vision were blurred, acting as if they were deaf. And so was the case for all the guildmates.

"Shit! This is bad.", K12 groaned in pain as he clutched his arm.

K06 frowned at K12, "How much time do we have before Second Stage?"

"We have more time since we were already given the antidote. It's them I am worried about.", K12 diverted his attention to Fairy Tail, "We've got no choice. They will all start going under the effect any minute now. It's up to us to keep them safe and hold them back till backup arrives.", he turned to look back at K06, "They can come from anywhere. And I am not gonna just stand there and let them be turned. We need to call for backup. Hand me your Com!", K12 thrust out his hand and K06 wasted no time in fishing out the device and handing it to him.

Natsu didn't know what the hell these knights where talking about, but the mention of 'them' who the pinkette can't place only helped create a wave of cold trepidation to wash over him.

He watched as K12 started punching at the screen. His features wary yet senses on high alert as he occasionally glanced around them.

Another low clack. And the thump of his heart.

Natsu's breath shook slightly.

What the hell was wrong with him. What is that sound...?

The air was now thick and cold and Natsu couldn't shake off the tremor that raked his spine.

A double bleep caught his attention and Natsu's raised his gaze towards the knights whose attention were pinned on the device, K12 raising it to his mouth, "Seargeant Chief. Can you read me? This is K12 from North Side of the Flower Garden. Requesting for imme.."

K12's eyes rolled back into his head, slumping to the ground.

"Sorry boys. We'll take it over from here.."

Wide onyx eyes darted behind K12 just in time to see a tall blonde-haired man in black attire. Similar to the one that laid on the ground.

Natsu's jaw slackened, 'What the-!'

"Watch ou-!"

Natsu's head snapped to his right just in time to see K06 letting out a pained grunt, before he too slinked to the ground, revealing another man hand holding a weapon that looked something between a shot gun and M11 .

"This one is for the Whisperers as requested..", the man next to K12 nudged the limp purple-head over to his back with his boots.

"And this one obviously goes to the Wraiths like the others.", the raven-haired man in black chuckled lowly his eyes on K06.

Cold wave washed over him as Natsu stood frozen, his eyes taking in the scene.

Now there were 5 bodies including the blonde.

Natsu stood rooted to his spot as he watched on helplessly as the one next to K12 let out a sinister chuckle before kicking K12 so as to turn his body in order to face him, "It weren't for this fucker, we would have bagged this County Station a long time ago.", the man spat to the side.

"Meaning, he had a good teacher or role model.", the raven-haired man next to him paused abruptly before bringing up a device of his own, "30 more to go.", he tapped at the screen before suddenly directing his attention towards the still pinkette.

Natsu bristled, planting his feet firmly, bracing himself for the worst.

"May we know what you men want?"

Natsu snapped his head to the side, seeing Erza step up beside him, still up after being hit by the needles along with Gray and Mira asked lowly, warning lacing her tone, the three of them standing guard beside Natsu, ready to jump in to protect him and his girl.

The taller dark-skinned man merely smirked as he scanned the Fairy Tail members before landing on the pinkette, before abruptly looking to the side and straightening up with a mix of surprise, both the men stepping to side.

Natsu eyed them warily before his eyes fell wide open, his features going stiff and cold.

A hooded figure stood in between the silent men.

The three beside Natsu immediately froze up, Gray holding back a grunt of surprise, all of them too intimidated to move.

Natsu's eyes raked over the figure. He wasn't sure if it was his eyes playing tricks on him seeing as the figure appeared to be hovering over the ground or if mist was clouding the figures legs to create such an illusion.

"What in God's name is that..?", Gray's breathy voice cut in.

They all stiffened up when it suddenly moved forward a few paces before stopping a few feet away from the pinkette and the group behind him, silence falling upon them.

Natsu couldn't feel his heartbeats anymore, making him doubt whether he was dead or he was dreaming.

"I'm not going to ask again.", Erza gripped the sword in her right hand tighter, stance ready as she glared at the men and the hooded figure who remained unmoving, "Who are you and what do you want?"

The figure started to move slowly and Natsu's mind went blank, unable to form any coherent thought, his eyes still on the figure.

His eyes suddenly shimmered when a thin card with intricate gold runes decorating its otherwise black translucent back, lightly floated out the figure's tattered dark cloak, stopping to hover in front of it, a soft glow emanating from it a moment later.

Suddenly, a bony hand slowly appeared out of one of the torn thick dark sleeves as it rose up feebly, all fingers aligned as if in the form of a circle as the tall blonde in black appeared to stand beside the figure, his smirk deepening, his eyes trained on Natsu, "Perfect. Thank you Nea.."

Everything seemed to slow down as the man raised his device to his lips as he kept his sinister gaze on the fire mage, Natsu remaining frozen, Gray's jaws slackening, Erza following the direction where the figure was pointing at in cold trepidation while Mira gasped lowly, their gazes landing on Natsu whose heart stopped dead at the blonde man's next words...

"Target acquired."


Took down the AN here, since no one is interested in reading this story anymore. Or I would have gotten reviews.. And yet, here I am at 2 AM updating with a proofread.

Thanks to TSG1996, Marsh07, Grimnack, vaneanime, artistofthemind for taking their time to read this chapter and review. Thanks so much guys.

A special thanks to a friend (whose name I won't mention until they say it's okay) I made recently. Thanks for your wonderful PM. You literally made my day.

Yours truly,

~your shady Riddler